Elon Musk has been criticized for his parenting views over the years, including for his comments that “civilization is going to crumble” if people don’t have more kids and his incorrect claim that his transgender daughter Vivian “is dead” and was “killed by the woke-mind virus.” (And all of that was before he allegedly welcomed his 13th child with fourth woman Ashley St. Clair!) The latest person to remark on the tech billionaire’s parenting style is someone close to him: Elon’s dad Errol Musk. The SpaceX CEO’s father slammed his son actions and involvement as a dad recently and revealed a “really weird situation” he witnessed.
“He hasn’t been a good dad,” Errol said about Elon in a Feb. 12 episode of the Wide Awake podcast, per Page Six. There’s no room for misinterpretation there with a statement like that! In the interview he blamed Elon’s reliance on nannies as part of the problem.
“The first child was too much with nannies and died in the care of a nanny,” Errol continued, referring to Elon’s firstborn son Nevada with ex-wife Justine Wilson, who died at 10 weeks old in 2002 due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
“Elon’s gonna shoot me for saying this, but that’s what I think. That’s no good. They were too rich, too many nannies,” Errol continued.
The Tesla CEO’s father went on to say that Elon and Wilson’s other children, 21-year-old twins Griffin and Vivian, and 19-year-old triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian, each had their own nanny.
“He had five children with the same woman, five sons all brought up. Each one had its own nanny,” Errol said, per E! News.
“When they got divorced [in 2008], the nannies were six on this side and six on that side,” Errol revealed. “It was a really weird situation.” There’s nothing wrong with having nannies or childcare, of course, but overly relying on nannies and welcoming so many children that it’s impossible to be a present parent in each of their lives is irresponsible at best, so we get where Errol is coming from.
The 78-year-old only had nice things to say about his grandchildren, though, which also include Elon’s kids X Æ A-Xii, 4, Exa Dark Sideræl, 3, and Techno Mechanicus, 20 months, with ex Grimes, twins Azure and Strider, 2, and a baby born in June 2024 with Shivon Zilis.
Errol, a South African politician and businessman with seven kids, including two he welcomed with his own stepdaughter, said he hasn’t spent “a lot of time” with the grandkids, per E! News, but in the time he has, it was enjoyable. “They were very nice,” he said. “And smart and very pleasant.”
The interview occurred two days before conservative influencer and author Ashley St. Clair announced on X (formerly Twitter) that she secretly welcomed Elon’s 13th child.
“Five months ago, I welcomed a new baby into the world. Elon Musk is the father,” St. Clair wrote. “I have not previously disclosed this to protect our child’s privacy and safety, but in recent days it has become clear that the tabloid media intends to do so, regardless of the harm it will cause.”
She continued, “I intend to allow our child to grow in a normal and safe environment. For that reason, I ask that the media honor our child’s privacy, and refrain from invasive reporting.”
Since then, St. Clair’s rep Brian Glicklich wrote on X that St. Clair and Elon “have been privately working towards the creation of an agreement about raising their child for some time.”
“We are waiting for Elon to publicly acknowledge his parental role with Ashley, to end unwarranted speculation, and Ashley trusts that Elon intends to finish their agreement quickly, in the best interests of the wellbeing and security of the child they share,” he said. So far, Elon’s only public acknowledgement of St. Clair’s announcement has been the one-word response, “Whoa.”
Stepping up to acknowledge his new baby would certainly do a lot to counteract Errol’s claim against Elon.
Before you go, check out these celebrities who gotten real about their love for their kids’ nannies.
