Every parent thinks their child is brilliant. Maye Musk, the Sports Illustrated cover model and registered dietitian-nutritionist, is no exception, especially since her son happens to be Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX.
Maye Musk shared her insights into her eldest son’s early brilliance during an interview on “CBS This Morning.” She explained that she recognized his potential when he was 3 years old, which eventually led him to become an influential entrepreneur and the richest man in the world.
“I knew I was a genius when I was 3,” Maye Musk recalls. She tried to get him admitted to kindergarten early, but the staff just “rolled their eyes.”
Speaking about his son being a genius, he said, “But many geniuses don’t put their talents to use. They end up in a basement somewhere. That’s why I was thrilled when he founded Zip2, simplifying door-to-door directions and providing restaurant links for newspapers. While it may seem commonplace today, it was groundbreaking back then, and that’s why I invested in it.”
In a profile for The Times UK, he said: “I called Elon ‘the boy genius.’ He remembered everything.”
His early recognition of Elon’s potential marked the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey, which would later encompass ventures such as PayPal, space exploration, solar energy, and electric cars, despite his advice to choose only one.
Maye Musk was interviewed as part of a BBC documentary, in which she described her son as a “genius.” She also stated that because of his enormous success, her son “gets a lot of hate.”
In 2022, Maye Musk took to X, formerly Twitter, to defend her son amid an avalanche of negative comments directed at his recent posts. She suggested that those criticizing him for his controversial posts were not real people but automated bots, and highlighted that much of the criticism came from fake accounts.
This defense came after Musk publicly announced his shift from being a Democratic voter to supporting the Republican Party.
In the same BBC interview, she explained her experience as a science enthusiast in high school. She shared that she didn’t go on many dates because she insisted on dating someone as proficient in math and science as she was, but no one other than her ex-husband was.
