By Maria-Antonia Gerstmeyer (Die Welt)
Rather out of the ordinary: at 73, she gives the impression of wiping the traces of time with a simple damp cotton disc.
“
It's true, people are always surprised that I'm still so beautiful at my age,
” says Maye Musk, when ICONIST magazine contacts her by phone in New York.
In her dress style too, she goes against everything that would be classified in the category of clothing suitable for her age group.
Maye Musk favors bright colors, sheer blouses, and wears her gray hair very short.
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At 73, the mother of Tesla founder Elon Musk is at the peak of her career, posing for brands like Ugg and Moschino, lecturing on nutrition and writing bestsellers. She has more than 470,000 followers on Instagram, to whom she proves through her posts that you can still be stylish and interesting at the age when others are enjoying their retirement. Looking through her account, it's hard to imagine that her life has been marked by serious financial difficulties, an abusive husband and many disappointments. “
As a model, I have learned to accept rejection,
” she says. "
After an unsuccessful casting, we simply prepare for the next one, alongside 300 other women
."
Maye Musk was born in 1948 in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. When she was two years old, her family moved to South Africa. At 21, she reached the final of the Miss South Africa beauty pageant. By this time, she had already graduated in dietetics and opened her own dietitian practice. But she marries the wrong person: Errol Musk, a wealthy engineer, with whom she will have three children in three years. He does not hesitate to beat and mistreat her in front of the children, so much so that Elon, the eldest son, five years old, hits his father in the hollow of the knees so that he can release his mother. .
For a long time, the young woman does not manage to separate from her husband, in particular because he threatens to disfigure her with a razor blade and to make children of the infirm if she decides to leave him. "
I was afraid of him in a panic
", she writes in her autobiography
A woman makes a plan
. "
That's why I didn't file for a divorce sooner, because I was terrified
."
After nine years of marriage, however, she eventually separated from him, divided between her role as a single mother and modeling contracts, but continued to live in fear, because the divorce would not be officially pronounced until another nine years later. . In her book, she tells how the one who was still her husband entered her house and followed her down the street with a knife, until she found refuge in a neighboring house.
At the end of the 1980s, Maye Musk returned to live in Canada. A few years later, she put all her savings, $ 10,000 set aside from her job as a dietitian and part-time modeling contracts, in a business called Zip2, which her two sons set up in a small office in Silicon. Valley. At the time, the Internet was still in its infancy. Zip2 is a kind of digital directory, which will eventually be sold to computer hardware giant Compaq for $ 307 million.
Elon Musk pocketed $ 22 million in this buyout and his mother immediately understands that she will not have to worry about her eldest son.
If before our telephone discussion, his team had asked us to avoid questions about Elon, in his book, it reveals some memories, for example that very small already, he read a lot, and that the family called him Genius Boy because he knew everything about everything.
Nickname which he finally exchanged for that of "
Technoking of Tesla
".
Great family reunions
His two other children also made careers: his daughter Tosca is a producer and director of adaptations of successful novels, and his son Kimbal is an entrepreneur at the head of several restaurants. “
Of course, I take full responsibility for their success,
” jokes Maye Musk over the phone to quickly change the subject. "
My children follow their own path, they never cease to surprise me
". She maintains a close relationship with the three. “
Our family reunions are absolutely great,
” she laughs. “
We meet up a lot during Tesla and
Space X launches
.
Last month Kimbal came to Los Angeles for a Tosca premiere, and Tosca and I recently went to Aspen for a big Kimbal event
”.
Perhaps it was the success of her children that gave her the self-confidence she needed to take a key turning point in her career: at 59, Maye Musk decided not to dye her hair anymore, and d 'display their natural gray. And this is precisely what allowed him to finally break into the modeling business. Two years later, she appeared on the front page of "
New York Magazine
" - naked and pregnant. Of course, she wasn't really pregnant, the photo just had to look like it. This one fits perfectly with her mission: "
I want to show women that you can be very beautiful at any age
".
If Maye Musk always appears smiling during interviews and conferences, the dark hours of her past regularly resurface.
“
It's not easy to gain self-confidence when you've been oppressed for 18 years,
” she explains.
And when she says the next moment that you have to work hard to be confident in yourself and surround yourself only with caring people, it sounds a lot less like an empty phrase than like advice from a woman who survived. many storms.
Easy remedies
Although she worked as a dietitian for a long time, Maye Musk often struggled with weight issues. Twice, she lost and gained 30 kg. When you feel bad about yourself, she says, you turn to simple remedies, like food. "
It avoids confronting your problems, but in the end you feel even worse
". Since then, she has managed to keep the figure.
It also took a while for Maye Musk to find her own style.
She only found out what clothes really fit her when she met stylist Julia Perry, when she was already over fifty.
“
After all, I was primarily a dietitian,
” recalls Maye Musk.
“
I thought I dressed really well
”.
When Julia Perry told him her clothes were awful, it was a shock.
“
Today, when she dresses me for an event, she mixes elements of young designers with what she finds in my wardrobe.
People think I dress like this myself
, ”she says.
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In her book, Maye Musk writes that she has never met true love, although she has tried a few dating sites.
Is she still looking for her prince charming?
“
My agenda wouldn't allow me to,
” she said.
"
Besides, I like spending time alone with my dog, and that doesn't necessarily please men very much
."
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