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- Kimbal Musk said he felt hopeless when his brother Elon was beaten up at school.
- He told the Times of London that Musk had upset those involved, but did not deserve a severe beating.
- The brothers grew up in South Africa, which Kimbal described as a “very violent place” at the time.
Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk felt hopeless when Elon was ‘badly’ beaten at school, he says The Times of London in an interview.
Kimbal Musk has recounted his experiences growing up with his older brother in South Africa, a place he described as “very violent” at the time.
“He had obviously upset them in some way, but nothing that would justify beating someone to death, which is what they were trying to do,” Musk told the outlet.
He added: “I couldn’t do anything.”
In another incident, Kimbal and Elon Musk were on a train, and a man in front of them was stabbed in the head and died “on the spot,” he said, as everyone tried to get off the train.
Elon Musk has already spoken about his childhood experiences, narrative Author Ashlee Vance says those who beat him asked his best friend to bring him out of hiding.
“For some reason, they decided I was the hero and they were going to hunt me down relentlessly. That made my childhood difficult. For several years, there was no respite,” he said, according to Vance’s 2015 book “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.”
He also described how he was chased by gangs at school, “and then I’d come home and it was just horrible there too.”
Kimbal Musk told the Times that his earliest memories of getting into trouble with Elon were when they were about four and five years old and were “caught” starting a fire in the back of their house.
“We were probably going to burn something,” he told the outlet.
According to the Times, their mother, Maye Musk, a registered dietitian and model, was physically and emotionally abused by her husband, Errol Musk, who scolded and verbally abused the two boys.
The two brothers moved to Canada from South Africa as teenagers, founded Zip2 and sold it for about $300 million in 1999.
They have since worked together on numerous projects, including SpaceX and Tesla, but have disagreed on numerous occasions, sometimes leading to physical altercations.
While working together in the Zip2 office in the 1990s, Kimbal Musk once “ripped a chunk of flesh” off Elon Musk’s hand while the brothers wrestled on the floor, according to Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Elon Musk.
In May, in a letter In a filing made public with the SEC, a group of Tesla shareholders urged others to vote against the re-election of Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch to Tesla’s board, citing concerns that they would be unable to effectively oversee the CEO due to their personal ties.
Kimbal Musk told the Times that a few months ago he spent days disagreeing with his brother over Tesla’s cost-cutting and manufacturing strategy, but this time without bloodshed.
“At least we don’t physically fight these days,” Kimbal Musk said.