Maye Musk Biography

Maye Musk was born Maye Haldeman, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, on April 19, 1948, to Dr. Joshua Norman Haldeman and Winnifred Josephine "Wyn" (Fletcher). Maye has a twin named Kaye and was one of the five children of her parents. Her father had been a director of Technocracy Incorporated, a chiropractor, and an amateur archaeologist.

She moved to Pretoria, South Africa, with her parents, in 1950. Her adventurous parents not just flew around in a prop plane but also searched for the mythical Lost City of the Kalahari in the Kalahari Desert for over a decade.

Maye had started modeling at age 15. In 1969, she was a finalist at the Miss South Africa beauty contest.

She also holds two master’s degrees: one in dietetics, from South Africa’s University of the Orange Free State, and the other in nutritional science, from Canada’s University of Toronto.

In 1970, Maye Musk married South African engineer Errol Musk, whom she had met in high school, and who later became a business tycoon and even co-owned an emerald mine. The couple had three children: sons Elon (born in 1971) and Kimbal (born in 1972) and daughter Tosca (born in 1974). Maye had apparently named Elon after her American grandfather, the Illinois-born John Elon Haldeman.

It is believed Maye’s marriage had been abusive since the beginning. She had apparently become pregnant with Elon during her honeymoon.

In-spite of the marriage having gone sour, she could not leave the relationship, as the Divorce Act that legalized the termination of marriages in South Africa, was not put in force till 1979. Maye and Errol divorced the same year.

In 1981, Elon moved in with his father. Kimbal, too, followed his brother 4 years later. Elon moved to Canada after graduating high school, and Maye, too, moved to Canada with Tosca in 1989.

Elon later grew up to become a billionaire entrepreneur with companies such as Tesla and SpaceX under his belt. Kimbal founded multiple culinary ventures, such as The Kitchen Restaurant Group, the urban farming company Square Roots, and the non-profit Big Green. Tosca, too, owns a streaming service, apart from being an award-winning producer-director of TV shows and films.

Maye Musk later moved to San Francisco for a little more than 2 years, to be closer to her business and children, and then moved to New York in 1999. Maye now has 10 grandchildren and holds Canadian, American, and South African citizenships.

After Maye Musk moved with her family from Johannesburg to Toronto in 1989, she apparently worked 5 jobs to raise her children as a single mother. Maye took up a job as a research officer at the University of Toronto, so that her children could study there for free.

She also trained models and taught nutrition for 2 nights a week. All the while, she studied to become a registered dietitian.

Maye and her family lived in a tiny rented apartment in Toronto. Her daughter, Tosca, too worked at a grocery store to supplement her family’s income.

Maye also helped Elon Musk bag a job at Microsoft before he attended college, through the husband of a colleague who worked there. She later focused on her modeling career.

To date, Maye has been featured in countless top-notch magazines, such as Vogue and Women’s Day. She has also appeared in Beyonce’s 2013 music video Haunted and has been part of commercials for brands such as Revlon and Special K cereal.

In 2011, Maye appeared naked on Time magazine’s health issue. The same year, she also posed nude for the cover of New York magazine.

Maye has been part of campaigns for Swarovski (Holiday 2017) and Clinique and walked the ramp for Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda. In May 2016, at 68, Maye was signed to IMG Models. She has also appeared in magazines such as Cosmopolitan US, W, and Vogue Korea.

In 2017, Maye, at 69, scripted history as the oldest spokesmodel for CoverGirl. Around the same time, she also became an ambassador for Dior Beauty. She has walked the runway at the New York Fashion Week, as a closing act of the Zero + Maria Cornejo's Spring/Summer 2018 show.

At 74, Maye was seen on the cover of Swimsuit 2022 Sports Illustrated, becoming the oldest model to have achieved the feat. She is currently signed to Creative Artists Agency (CAA). As a living champion of the fight against ageism in the fashion industry, Maye stopped coloring her hair on her 60th birthday.

In 1995, when Elon and Kimbal Musk launched their software company Zip2, for media companies and e-commerce clients, Maye Musk was busy with her dietetics practice in Toronto and preparations for the publication of her first book, apart from focusing on her regular modeling assignments.

Maye worked selflessly to assist her sons start their first venture. She would fly from Toronto to Silicon Valley every few weeks and help her sons chalk out the company's business plan and supervise interns.

She also funded their printing expenses and bought them food, clothes, and furniture. In 1996, Maye donated all her savings to fund the rent and other expenses for her sons’ business.

In 2021, Maye appeared in a cameo on Saturday Night Live, accompanying her son, Elon. In 2023, Maye received an honorary doctorate in dietetics from South Africa’s University of the Free State.

She is also a best-selling author, having penned books such as her 2018 memoir, A Woman Makes a Plan. She has also written books related to nutrition and fitness, such as Feel Fantastic (1996) and Executive Stamina (1999).