Billionaire Elon Musk is attempting to expand his booming business with a shock attempt to take over Twitter - which he would add to his already impressive roster of companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.
But while the eccentric businessman - who is the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $260 billion - is known around the world for his professional endeavors, quirky lifestyle, and rocky romances, his life has not always been so high-profile. 
In fact, Musk, 50, experienced a difficult childhood thanks to a rocky relationship with his father - who the SpaceX founder has described as 'evil' in the past and a seemingly-lonely upbringing. 
Now, it seems, Musk has moved far past the tough times, in order to attempt to once again make financial history with his attempted takeover of Twitter.  
The SpaceX founder announced on Wednesday that he wants to buy Twitter for $41.39 billion - offering $54.20 per share in cash. 
It's been reported that Twitter's board of directors is meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss Musk's historic bid and 'carefully review the proposal,' and that the company plans to hold an all-hands meeting later in the day to update employees. 
Musk said that he is pursuing the takeover of Twitter not for financial gain, but for the 'future of civilization,' adding that he has a 'Plan B' if his initial $41.3 billion offer fails.
'This is not about the economics,' he said at the TED2022 Conference in Vancouver on Thursday afternoon, as it was reported that Twitter's board is plotting to employ a 'poison pill' in order to stop his takeover attempt.
'My strong intuitive sense is having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is important to the future of civilization. The civilizational risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform.
'Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it's really important that people have both the reality and perception that they are able to speak freely, in the bounds of the law.' 




















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Besides launching his own aerospace manufacturing company - SpaceX - he also serves as the CEO of automobile company Tesla, Inc. and has created The Boring Company - a construction service dedicated to building tunnels.
He has also co-founded Neuralink, a neurotech company, and artificial intelligence research laboratory OpenAI.
Previously, he created Zip2 - an online directory that provided addresses and directions to newspapers - as well as X.com - an online banking system that was later turned into PayPal.
But how did Musk go from a nerdy child living in South Africa with an absentee mother and emotionally abusive father to the richest man on Earth? 
Musk didn't have the easiest childhood - he was severely bullied by his classmates and it got so bad that he was once hospitalized after they pushed him down a set of stairs.
As he entered his teen years, he dreamed of moving to America but struggled to find the funds.
Against all odds, he eventually made it to the U.S. - through scholarships, loans, and working two jobs simultaneously - where he graduated from college and launched his first business.
But not without more hardship - while starting his primary company in 1995, Musk became homeless and had to sleep on the couch in his office. 
As he gears up to potentially purchase Twitter and expand is already-enormous list of business ventures, FEMAIL has taken a look back at his career from start to finish - including how he escaped his abusive father to how he started his first million-dollar company without even having a place to live. 


 



Elon Musk's childhood: How he overcame years of abuse from his 'evil' and 'terrible' father





Described as an 'awkward and introverted' kid, Musk (pictured left with his siblings and mother) was severely bullied by his classmates throughout his childhood

'I felt sorry for my father, because my mother had all three kids. He seemed very sad and lonely by himself. So I thought, "I can be company."
'Yeah, I was sad for my father. But I didn't really understand at the time what kind of person he was.' 
He went on to call his dad a 'terrible human being,' adding that he 'carefully thought-out plans of evil.'
'You have no idea about how bad [it was],' he continued. 'Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.' 
He added that although Errol was emotionally abusive, he never physically hurt him. 
In a statement to the outlet, Musk's father wrote: 'I love my children and would readily do whatever for them.' 
He also responded to Musk's claims during an [url=https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?sel=site&searchPhrase=interview]interview with DailyMail.com months later, saying, 'Elon needs to grow up. He needs to get over himself. I'm not going to hit back.
'I'm going to wait until he comes to his senses. He's having a tantrum, like a spoilt child. He can't have what he wants and now I am apparently an evil monster.'  





Musk moved to Canada in 1989. He attended Queen's University in Ontario for two years before he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995 (pictured left that year)

After graduating from Pretoria Boys High School, he decided to apply for a Canadian passport so he could get closer to the United States. While waiting to be approved, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months.
When asked why he wanted to move to North America, he later told , 'It seemed like the vast majority of such things came from the United States.
'I also read a lot of comic books, and they all seemed to be set in the United States. So it's like, "Well, I'm going to go to this place."'
He moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1989, where he lived with a second-cousin for about a year. During that time, he worked odd jobs at a farm and lumber-mill to get by.
The billionaire recalled his father telling him that he was 'never going to make it' right before he left.
'[He said] I'm never going to make anything of myself. He called me an idiot all the time. That's the tip of the iceberg, by the way,' he told Rolling Stone.
He attended Queen's University in Ontario for two years before he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics in 1995.
During college, he interned at an energy storage company called Pinnacle Research Institute, and at the video game developer Rocket Science Games.
In 1995, he was accepted at Stanford University in California for a Ph.D. program, but dropped out two days into it. 


 



A deeper dive into the Musk family: How his siblings earned their own fame and fortune





Maye later recalled realizing that Musk was a 'genius' at age three

She starred in Beyoncй's music video for her hit song Haunted in 2013, and made history in 2017, when she became CoverGirl's oldest spokesmodel at age 69.
She also wrote her own memoir in 2019, called A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, Beauty, and Success.
While promoting the memoir, she recalled realizing that Musk was a 'genius' at age three.
'Well at thee, I knew he was a genius, but you still don't know if he's going to do great things,' she told CBS This Morning.
'Because many geniuses end up in a basement being a genius but not ap[url=]
'Taking care of my children was the top priority; I worked hard to keep a roof over our heads, food in our stomach, and basic clothes on our back,' she wrote.





Musk's siblings have launched major careers of their own. His brother, Kimbal (center), is a well-known restaurateur, chef, and entrepreneur, and his sister, Tosca (right) in a filmmaker

Musk's siblings have launched major careers of their own over the years. His brother, Kimbal, is a well-known restaurateur, chef, and entrepreneur. 
He owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group - a collection of restaurants located throughout Colorado, Chicago, and Indianapolis.
He also founded an urban farming company called Square Roots, which focuses on growing food in indoor, climate controlled shipping containers.
He also sits on the boards of two of his older brother's companies - Tesla and SpaceX - and he helped co-found the software company Zip2 with him in 1995.
He was married twice - first, to a woman named Jen Lewin whom he shares three kids with. 
He then married Christiana Wyly in April 2018, who is an environmental activist and the daughter of billionaire Sam Wyly. 
As for Musk's sister, Tosca works as a filmmaker in South Africa and has made quite a name for herself in the everlost movie release dateeverlost movie release date industry.
She directed her first feature film, called Puzzled, in 2001 - and her older brother served as the film's executive producer. She has since produced over a dozen movies, TV shows, and web series.


 



Musk's growing business empire: How he went from a nerdy kid in South Africa to a billionaire mogul
In 1995, Musk founded a web software company called Zip2 with his brother, Kimbal, and businessman Greg Kouri.





He then went on to co-found X.com - an online financial service. It took off quickly - earning more than 200,000 customers during its initial months of operation. Musk is pictured in 2000






After becoming inspired by Mars Society's plan to place a small greenhouse on Mars and grow plants on the planet, Musk (pictured in 2004) tried to obtain refurbished missiles from Russia






The company has gone on to release a series of space transportation devices, and has become one of the most successful aerospace manufacturers in the world






Musk and his first wife, Justine Wilson, met while they were both attending Queen's University, and they tied the knot in 2000






They then  welcomed twins Griffin and Xavier (pictured with Musk and his second wife, Talulah Riley, in 2010), in 2004, and triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian, in 2006






Musk and Wilson split in 2008. Twins Griffin and Xavier are pictured with Musk and his second wife, Talulah, in 2015 












Following his split from Justine, Musk began dating British star Talulah Riley, who is most known for her role in Pride & Prejudice. They are pictured in 2012

'Elon and I share custody of the children, who are thriving. I feel grounded now, and deeply grateful for my life.'
Their five children have largely managed to remain out of the spotlight, although it was revealed in 2018 that all of boys were being educated at a radical, ultra-exclusive school set up by the Tesla founder at his SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
The 'experimental' school, which is called Ad Astra, meaning 'to the stars' in Latin, was set up in 2014.







Riley, now 36, first tied the knot with Musk in 2010, but they split in 2012, when she walked away with $16 million as part of a divorce settlement. They are pictured in 2011










They remarried the next summer. In March 2016, RIley requested a divorce again, and the pair split for good. They are pictured in 2014 (left) and 2015 (right)

However, their first marriage ended in 2012, when she reportedly walked away with $16 million as part of a divorce settlement.
'It was an amazing four years. I will love you forever. You will make someone very happy one day,' he tweeted at the time.
By the following summer, they had remarried. But then, in December 2014, she filed for divorce a second time, only to withdraw her lawsuit the following year.
In March 2016, Riley requested a divorce a third time, and the pair split for good; the couple did not have any children together. 
Musk told at the time, 'We took some time apart for several months to see if absence makes the heart grow fonder, and unfortunately it did not. 
'I still love her, but I'm not in love with her. And I can't really give her what she wants.'
He also called her 'a great woman' and said he will 'always be friends' with her.
At the time, he said he had no interest in marrying again for a while, adding, 'I think it would be extremely unwise for me to jump into a third marriage without spending considerable time figuring out if the third one will work.
'It was never my intention to have a short marriage. Essentially I'd want to be super sure before getting married again, but I certainly would love to be in a relationship. For sure.' 
Musk dated actress Amber Heard, 35, for several months in late 2016 and early 2017, after he reportedly pursued her for many years.





Heard's ex-husband Johnny Depp later accused Amber of cheating on him with Musk while they were still married, but both of Musk and Heard denied the affair. They are pictured in 2017

Heard's ex-husband Johnny Depp later accused Heard of cheating on him with Musk while they were still married, but both Musk and Heard denied the affair. 
They split in the summer of 2017, and afterwards, he told Rolling Stone in 2017 that he was 'really in love' with Heard and that their breakup 'hurt bad.'
'She broke up with me more than I broke up with her, I think,' he told the outlet at the time.
'I've been in severe emotional pain for the last few weeks. Severe. It took every ounce of will to be able to do the Model 3 event and not look like the most depressed guy around. For most of that day, I was morbid.'
He continued, 'If I'm not in love, if I'm not with a long-term companion, I cannot be happy.
'I will never be happy without having someone. Going to sleep alone kills me. It's not like I don't know what that feels like: Being in a big empty house, and the footsteps echoing through the hallway, no one there - and no one on the pillow next to you. F**k. How do you make yourself happy in a situation like that?'
Musk then began dating singer Grimes in April 2018, a month before they made their red carpet debut at the Met Gala.
A source told [url=] at the time that they met online 'through a joke about artificial intelligence that Musk had planned to tweet, but discovered Grimes had already made.'





Rumors started to swirl that they had split by that fall, however, Grimes insisted that they were still together during a March 2019 interview. She and Musk are pictured in 2018






Describing her role in her son's life, Grimes told Vanity Fair that she has taken responsibility for 'handling his creative stuff,' while she notes that Musk 'really sees [X] as a protйgй.' Musk and X are pictured in February 2021

'Describing her role in her son's life, Grimes told [url=]that she has taken responsibility for 'handling his creative stuff,' while she notes that Musk 'really sees [X] as a protйgй.' 
Just over a year after welcoming their son, who now 23 months old, Musk told  that they were 'semi-separated.' 
'We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms,' he said in September 2021.
'It's mostly that my work at SpaceX and Tesla requires me to be primarily in Texas or traveling overseas and her work is primarily in LA. She's staying with me now and Baby X is in the adjacent room.'
Grimes relocated in December from her home in Los Angeles to a property in Austin, Texas, where she is currently residing in a 'sleepy neighborhood cul-de-sac' that is located 'a short drive' away from Tesla's factory.
They then welcomed their second child via surrogate that same month - a baby girl named Exa Dark Siderжl.
According to the singer, the newborn's quirky first name, Exa, was inspired by the supercomputing term exaFLOPS, which is 'the ability to perform one quintillion floating-point operations per second,' while her second name Dark, is a nod to dark matter and 'the unknown.'
'People fear it but truly it's the absence of photons. Dark matter is the beautiful mystery of our universe,' she told the magazine.
Finally, Siderжl, which is pronounced sigh-deer-ee-el, is a 'more elven spelling' of sidereal, which Grimes described as 'the true time of the universe, star time, deep space time, not our relative earth time.'
Their daughter's third name is also a reference to Grimes' favorite Lord of the Rings character, the elf Galadriel. The couple will call their baby daughter 'Y' for short.





Grimes said she wants to keep her daughter's life as private as possible - unlike her son X (pictured in November 2021) who has been featured numerous times on his father's social media

During the time of the Vanity Fair interview, Grimes said she 'would probably refer to Musk as her boyfriend,' adding that the relationship was 'very fluid.'
She said: 'We live in separate houses. We're best friends. We see each other all the time…. We just have our own thing going on, and I don't expect other people to understand it. This is the best it's ever been.... We just need to be free.'
However, after it came out, she took to Twitter to reveal that they had since broken up.
'Me and E have broken up *again* since the writing of this article,' she wrote on March 10. 'But he's my best friend and the love of my life.'
Both Grimes and Musk noted to Vanity Fair that their current separate living situation is the best for both of them, explaining that they each have very different needs and likes when it comes to creating a home.
While Musk likes things to be 'reasonably neat,' Grimes is described as taking a more creative, artistic approach to her home. She also enjoys Japanese art and anime, which the Tesla founder explained he 'doesn't like.'
Grimes said she was determined to keep her daughter's life as private as possible - unlike her son X who has been featured numerous times on his father's social media accounts, and has been seen out in public with his parents on several occasions.





During the time of the Vanity Fair interview, Grimes said she 'would probably refer to Musk as her boyfriend.' However, after it came out, she took to Twitter to reveal they had broken up

She noted that her son 'is just out there,' largely because Musk has been 'bringing him to everything,' however she is eager to ensure that her daughter will not have to face the same public scrutiny, even stating that 'the best situation' for the parents would be for 'her to train the girl' and for 'him to train the boy.'
'Didn't mean for them to find out about my daughter so please respect her privacy as I'd love her to be able to live as private of a life as possible,' she added on Twitter, while discussing the article.
'This is the last time I'll do any traditional press [cause] I'm a pretty private person. Haven't done press in a long time [cause] my personal life is so mad and I think it's hard to foreground my work but also maybe it's all intertwined at this point.'
Aside from his complex dating life, Musk's living condition is also somewhat of a mystery.
It is currently unclear where exactly the business mogul - who has an estimated net worth of around $221 billion - is living.
He announced last year that he was 'selling almost all physical possessions,' including several California properties amounting to more than $100 million - and $15 billion worth of Tesla stock.
He purportedly then moved into a 75-square-foot $50,000 'Tiny House' close to SpaceX's Starbase rocket-launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.  






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