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.
As her parents were entrepreneurs, Musk started working at about 8 years of age, where 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 the cover of Time magazine for a health issue[16] and also nude on the cover of New York magazine in 2011 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".[18][19] In 2022, at age 74, she was the oldest Sports Illustrated swimsuit model to date, appearing on the cover of the annual issue.[20]
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).[21]
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.[24]
In 2023, Musk signed with Chinese electronics giant Oppo to be the global ambassador for its flagship smartphone.[25] Musk will appear in a series of commercials and events.