Maye Musk (néeHaldeman; born April 19, 1948)[2] is a model and dietitian.[3][4] She has been a model for 50 years, appearing on the covers of magazines, including a Time magazine health edition, Women's Day, international editions of Vogue, and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She is the mother of Elon Musk, Kimbal Musk and Tosca Musk.[5] She holds Canadian, South African, and American citizenship. She is a registered dietitian and earned two masters degrees in diet and nutrition.
As her parents were entrepreneurs, Musk started working at about 8 years of age, when she would "prepare her parents monthly bulletins and photocopy newsletters, and then put the stamps on the envelopes.”[12] By the age of 12, before and then after school, Musk worked as a receptionist alongside her twin sister for their father.
As a young woman, Haldeman was a finalist in the 1969 Miss South Africa beauty competition.[3] In 1970, she married Errol Musk, a South African engineer she met in high school. They had three children: Elon Musk, Kimbal Musk, and Tosca Musk. She named Elon after her American grandfather, John Elon Haldeman (born in Illinois).[13][14]
In 1979, she divorced Errol Musk. Two years later, Elon, who was about 10 at the time, decided to live with his father, as he had the Encyclopaedia Britannica and a computer, things which Maye could not afford to give the children as a single parent.[15] Kimbal joined Elon four years later.[3] After graduating from high school, Elon decided to move to Canada; in 1989, six months later, Maye moved to Canada with her daughter Tosca.[16]
Her modelling career continued in Canada and the United States.[16] She has appeared on boxes of Special K cereal,[3] in Revlon ads,[3] and in a Beyoncé video ("Haunted").[3] She appeared nude on both the cover of Time magazine for a health issue[16] and the cover of New York magazine in 2011, the latter with a fake pregnant belly.[16] She was on the cover of Elle Canada in 2012,[16] and starred in advertisement campaigns for Target and Virgin America.[16] In September 2017, she became CoverGirl's oldest spokesmodel at age 69, which one news story reported as "making history".[19][20] In 2022, at age 74, she was the oldest Sports Illustrated swimsuit model to date, appearing on the cover of the annual issue.[21]
In addition to modelling, she has a business as a dietitian and gives presentations worldwide.[16]
She wrote a memoir titled A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, Beauty, and Success (2019).[22] Maye had written ‘Feel Fantastic- Maye Musk’s Good Health Clinic’ which was published in 1996. It enumerated healthy habits and lifestyle changes for healthy aging.
In an interview with Forbes magazine, Musk said her greatest achievement was "having three great kids and surviving".[12]
In April 2023, Musk received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Free State in South Africa for her work as a dietitian.[25]
In 2023, Musk signed with Chinese electronics giant Oppo to be the global ambassador for its flagship smartphone.[26] She will appear in a series of commercials and events.
Politics
When Musk became an American citizen, she registered as Democrat. However after unnamed Democrats allegedly said that her son "Elon is terrible", she thought the party was "malicious and dishonest", and changed to Republican.[27] In October 2024, Musk made a post on X recommending Republican voters should commit fraud during the 2024 United States presidential election, by voting under false names multiple times, purporting that Democrats were already doing so using "illegals". She gave no evidence that "illegals" are voting. Musk was cautioned by lawyers that her post constituted a criminal act, and that she could be legally prosecuted for criminal conspiracy, if anyone followed her recommendation. She then said readers should "ignore" the post.[28]
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