Elon Musk's model mother Maye Musk says he was doing this when he was just 3
Maye Musk always knew there was something extraordinary about her son Elon, who would grow up to become the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
“Elon was quite shy, but he was so intelligent. At 3 years old, I told people I had this genius boy, which is what every mother says about their children,” the 71-year-old CoverGirl model told Yahoo Lifestyle. “The thing is he could read the encyclopedia, and he could remember the facts, and that’s unusual.”
Unfortunately, Elon’s brainy demeanor didn’t make him any friends.
“The kids would say to him, ‘We don’t want to play with you, because that’s not fun,’” his mother explained.
The elder Musk describes raising all three of her children, including daughter Tosca and another son, Kimbal, as a single mother, in the memoir she released in December, A Woman Makes a Plan.
Musk said that, after leaving an abusive marriage, she had to figure out how to make life work for her new family — her and her children. Cutting back financially wasn’t enough.
“When you’re a single mom, you need some help, and you need your children to help you,” Musk said. “They would have to get themselves ready for school. They would have to walk to school or take a bus, and then they would have to do their own homework. I didn’t have time to check their homework. My parents taught us to be independent, and I taught my children to make their own decisions and be responsible for them.”
Musk noted that all three of her little ones went on to become entrepreneurs. While Elon made moves in the tech world, Tosca chose to conquer the entertainment industry, as a filmmaker and founder of a streaming service that adapts romance novels into movies and TV shows.
“She started her own platform, called Passionflix. The female leads get the same pay as the male leads, and [there are] female directors,” Musk said.
The proud mom describes Kimbal, a restaurateur and co-founder of the nonprofit Big Green, which provides gardens to schools, as “a trailblazer for healthy eating in middle America.”
“He opens farm-to-table restaurants to support local farmers and to give people the opportunity to eat fresh food,” Musk shared.
Spoken like a true mom.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Drew Barrymore gets candid about body image: 'I have stood in my closet and just cried'
James Taylor reveals that he gave John Lennon drugs in the '60s: 'I was a bad influence'
Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyle's newsletter.
