Elon Musk no longer speaks to him... And the New York Times thinks it knows why. In a lengthy investigation published this Tuesday, September 23, the newspaper reveals that his father, Errol Musk, 79, has been the target of a series of accusations of child sexual abuse since the early 1990s. The South African businessman was reportedly alerted to these facts on numerous occasions, prompting him to act discreetly, away from the cameras.

Renowned engineer and former Pretoria city councilor Errol Musk fathered nine children with several women. The charges against him concern five of his children and stepchildren, for incidents that occurred in South Africa and California, according to police and court records, personal correspondence, social workers, and interviews with family members seen by The New York Times.

The last case dates back to 2023

The first accusation dates back to 1993 when Jana, his then four-year-old stepdaughter, told her relatives that she had been groped in the family home in South Africa. Her mother, Heide-Mari, immediately contacted the authorities, and the police opened an investigation. A few years later, she withdrew her complaint as part of divorce proceedings that secured her a generous settlement.

Over the years, several members of the Musk family would also accuse Errol of abusing two of his daughters and a stepson. The most recent case dates back to 2023, when relatives and a social worker attempted to intervene after his youngest son, then 5, said his father had groped his buttocks.

The New York Times reveals that in the early 2000s, Elon Musk attempted to intervene when his family briefly relocated to the United States, following his business success. At the time, he tried to keep his half-brothers and half-sisters by his side, considering establishing a form of guardianship.

To protect them from Errol, he even goes so far as to install the latter on a boat moored in the bay of California... before sending him back to South Africa! It was a waste of time. Three years later, the children's mother, still fragile after being hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital, reconnects with the patriarch... once again placing her offspring under his threat.

The SpaceX CEO has rarely spoken about his relationship with his father. In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, he confided that his father had done "almost everything wrong you can imagine." In the 2023 biography by journalist Walter Isaacson, he also spoke of a childhood marked by fear and humiliation.