He is the most powerful and influential CEO in the world.
He is also the one who receives extensive media coverage. While his millions of fans often feel like they know him, Musk seems to think that this is not the case, given the rumors circulating that he comes from a privileged background which allowed him to start his life as an entrepreneur.
He tries to establish the facts in a long message on Twitter in which he confides that he did not have a happy childhood. In this message, he hopes that, by being very honest about himself, he will silence the rumors.
Here is the full message that responds to an allegation that his father, Errol Musk, owned an emerald mine. It is important to note that Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, is not close to his father.
Childhood
"I grew up in a lower, transitioning to upper, middle income situation, but did not have a happy childhood. Haven’t inherited anything ever from anyone, nor has anyone given me a large financial gift," Elon Musk wrote.
"My father created a small electrical/mechanical engineering company that was successful for 20 to 30 years, but it fell on hard times. He has been essentially bankrupt for about 25 years, requiring financial support from my brother and me.
"That said, he does deserve credit for teaching me the fundamentals of physics, engineering and construction, which is more valuable than money, but did not support me financially after high school in any meaningful way.
"Our condition of providing him financial support was that he not engage in bad behavior. Unfortunately, he nonetheless did. There are young children involved, so we continued to provide financial support for their well-being.
"Regarding the so-called ‘emerald mine’, there is no objective evidence whatsoever that this mine ever existed. He told me that he owned a share in a mine in Zambia, and I believed him for a while, but nobody has ever seen the mine, nor are there any records of its existence.
"If this mine was real, he would not require financial support from my brother and me."
His Sister
Elon Musk, 51, has a brother, Kimbal, and a sister, Tosca. Kimbal, 50, is a restaurateur, chef and entrepreneur. He is a shareholder of Tesla and owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group. Tosca, 48, is a film-maker and director, who runs the streaming platform Passionflix, which adapts romance novels for the screen.
Last year, Tosca said in an interview, that their father physically and verbally abused their mother Maye in front of them when they were children.
Tosca claimed that young Elon had often come between their parents to defend their mother. She also says that Errol had gone so far as to destroy the belongings that their mother had bought for them to get revenge on her for asking for a divorce.
This difficult childhood estranged the father and the son.
"Some people spew hate language towards us because they think we grew up with a silver spoon and were given everything – which is so far from the truth. When I was growing up it was just a matter of survival," Tosca said at the time.
"I don't like that my kids watch YouTube and there are jokes about my brother; it makes them feel a little uncomfortable. And they don't understand why people would say [negative] things about him.”
