The Bloomberg Billionaires Index states that 53-year-old Musk’s net worth is around $444 billion—proclaiming him the richest person on the planet.
The businessman, who is the former CEO of PayPal and founder of American space tech company SpaceX, was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1971 to Canadian model Maye, 76, and his father Errol, 78, an electromechanical engineer.
Elon Musk was born in South Africa, but considers himself to have British heritage (Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic)
Surprisingly, he also has close family ties with Liverpool in England. This is where his late grandmother, Cora Robinson, previously lived with her five siblings.
According to the Daily Mail, she was part of a ‘proud, hard-working family’ but soon left Liverpool behind to settle in the Rainbow Nation in 1944 with Musk’s grandfather, Walter.
The couple went on to have Errol, who later welcomed Elon, his brother Kimbal, 52, and sister Tosca, 50.
Earlier this year, Musk declared on X that he was ‘from a British/English background, not an Afrikaner background’, comparing his heritage to that of author J. R. R. Tolkien, who was born in the Orange Free State (now known as South Africa) in 1892.
It appears, though, that Cora isn’t the tech tycoon’s only tie to England.
According to the Daily Mail, Musk has a cousin in retired merchant seaman Marshall Robinson.
The 86-year-old has allegedly never met Musk but met his estranged father in South Africa a ‘long time ago’.
“I have never been in touch but one of the family did send him a social media message and he just said: ‘What do you want?’ That was it,” Robinson claimed.
The retiree has also hit out at his relative, branding him ‘stupid’ for ‘all the things he comes out with’.
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Musk’s English relatives allege to have tried reaching out to the tech mogul in the past (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
“It’s pretty shocking with what he has become and how he’s linked to President-Elect Trump,” he continued. “I’m shocked that I’ve now got a link to the White House.”
Another of Musk’s alleged relatives is Robinson’s 67-year-old sister Shane, who told the publication she uncovered their connection by chance.
“I have not been in touch with Elon – and I don’t know what I’d say to him,” the mother-of-five admitted.
“I don’t think Elon has snubbed the family but he hasn’t shown any interest in us from what I know.
“I was shocked to learn we were related to him. I didn’t realise the family connection until I started researching our family tree.”
She claimed that while she has been in touch with Kimbal and Errol, she ultimately decided not to contact Musk because they were ‘his poor relations after all’.
“A lot of people say he is a bit mad but he is very intelligent – intelligent people often don’t come across very well,” added Shane.
