Love him or hate him, Elon Musk is a titan of the tech industry.
Enterprises such as Tesla and SpaceX alone are more than enough to justify people calling
him a real-life Iron Man.
But how did he get where he is today?
Here's the tragic, real-life story of Elon Musk.
In a 2015 biography by Ashlee Vance, Musk called his father, Errol Musk, "an odd duck,"
and said of his own childhood,
"It would certainly be accurate to say that I did not have a good childhood…
It was not absent of good, but it was not a happy childhood.
It was like misery."
Musk attributes a lot of this misery, including alleged abuse, to Errol.
"It was very violent.
It was not a happy childhood.
My father has his serious issues."
Errol has mostly been unaffected by the negative publicity.
According to the New Zealand Herald, he feels that his son's accusations are that of a spoiled
child.
He also suspects his son's comments are motivated by a fragile emotional state … and a lingering
bitterness over the way Errol failed to love the U.S.A. like his son did.
"I remember thinking and saying that America is where great things are possible, more than
any other country in the world.
It's sort of cliche but it's true."
It's easy to think of a man like Musk as an unflappable inventor who doesn't really need
the company of other people.
But according to a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, this couldn't be further from the truth.
"I feel fear quite strongly."
Having just split with his girlfriend at the time, Amber Heard, Musk candidly revealed
that he's terrified of being alone.
He said,
“I will never be happy without having someone.
Going to sleep alone kills me.”
Musk claimed that, as a child, he decided he never wanted to be alone, and he has carried
that philosophy to adulthood.
"I do warn you it's gonna be a slightly bumpy ride, it's a little rough around the edges."
The Independent and Business Insider have both taken a look at Musk's dating history.
And as popular as he might be with the ladies, his relationships have an unfortunate tendency
to, well, end.
His first marriage, to Justine Musk, ended in a divorce in 2008.
And his marriage to Talulah Riley was a more complicated affair.
"I thought he was some sort of hapless engineer that had wandered into a London club, and
he just looked so forlorn, he just sat in a corner on his Blackberry."
The couple divorced in 2012 and remarried in 2013.
Musk filed and withdrew a second divorce in 2014, and Riley finally divorced him in 2016.
Later that year, Musk started dating actress Amber Heard, but they split in 2017.
"Let's see.
Where did that fall apart."
But perhaps the strangest piece of Musk's relationship puzzle is the most recent one.
Insider reported that Musk was browsing Twitter to make an artificial intelligence pun when
he noticed that indie musician Grimes had already used the same joke in one of her music
videos.
The two later debuted their relationship at the 2018 Met Gala.
Since then, the pair has enjoyed a tumultuous "are they or aren't they" relationship.
"I mean it's legal, right?"
"It's totally legal."
"Okay."
As a high-ranking member of the Silicon Valley pantheon, Musk has been the subject of many
rumors linking him to the decadent lifestyle of the rich and famous.
Musk smoked marijuana on Joe Rogan's podcast and, rather more controversially, rapper Azealia
Banks accused him and his girlfriend Grimes of leaving her stranded in Musk's house for
"days," according to Vox.
Banks insinuated that during her stay, Musk was on acid, and she speculated that the two
were looking for some kinky bedroom antics.
"No I did not come to LA to have some f---ing like mutant alien orgy and do some other f---ing
crazy s---, b----."
Although Musk denies knowing Banks personally, she's not the only one who has connected the
billionaire with a lifestyle of debauchery.
In 2018, Vanity Fair released an excerpt of Emily Chang's book, Brotopia, about the excesses
of Silicon Valley power players.
The piece described the nasty details of one theme party, complete with copious drugs and
adult hookups.
The excerpt prompted entrepreneur Paul Biggar to write a blog post revealing Musk had in
fact attended the party.
According to the Cut, Chang confirms this in her book and revealed that Musk was wearing
an armor-themed costume with spikes and chains.
"Look.
Dustin Moskovitz, Elon Musk, Eric Schmidt, whatever the f--- the guy's name is that created
Photrio."
A spokesperson for Musk confirmed he had indeed been there for a couple hours but insisted
that Musk never realized he was in the middle of an orgy.
Musk is a man whose work-life balance tends to skew heavily toward work.
According to the Guardian, crunch time for Tesla's Model 3 production schedule saw Musk
routinely clocking 120-hour weeks and popping Ambien pills to wind down.
"Almost all my time, like 80 percent is spent on engineering design."
Musk's notorious efficiency and hardcore work ethic has often been celebrated by the press,
but in August 2018, he portrayed a downside to being constantly in work mode.
In an emotional interview with the New York Times, Musk revealed how much his killer schedule
has affected him.
He almost missed his brother's wedding and spent his own birthday holed up in the Tesla
factory.
"I'm definitely under stress, so if I seem like I'm not under stress then I better be
clear, I'm definitely under stress."
The fact that Musk sometimes cools down with Ambien sedatives after his grueling work days
has added an extra element of concern for his business associates.
Tesla board members have suspected that it's the real reason behind his occasional strange
Twitter tirades.
"People should not work this hard.
They should not do this.
It's very painful."
"Painful in what sense?"
"It hurts my brain and my heart."