Elon Musk’s sister has claimed she’s been ripped off because she shares a last name with the world’s richest man.
In an interview with the DailyMail, the Tesla billionaire’s filmmaker sister Tosca Musk alleged that she’s been overcharged by filming locations because “everyone assumes my eldest brother pays for everything”.
“The location was going to cost $5,000 (£4,000) a day,” she told the outlet on 18 June of a recent set location she’d been trying to book. “But when they heard my name and assumed we were rich, they decided to charge us $25,000 (£20,000). That’s not exactly fair, is it?”
Tosca, the founder of Passionflix – a streaming service and production company for romantic movies – described her last name as “a blessing and a curse,” but said “it’s mostly a blessing and [she] would never be tempted to change it.”
Elon Musk’s estimated net worth was recently valued at about $192bn, surpassing French multi-billionaire Bernard Arnault as the world’s richest man. However, Tosca explained that many people think the SpaceX founder gained his wealth because they “were born rich”.
“Everyone assumes my eldest brother pays for everything, but he does not,” she said. When asked if Elon has ever contributed to her production company, either financially or by giving business advice, Tosca admitted that it was a “double-edged sword” for her to say whether her brother has helped her in any way.
“If I say no, then people will say he does not support me at all and if I say yes, they’ll think he paid for everything,” she explained. Tosca added that people approach her “all the time” in the hopes of getting closer to her tech billionaire brother, but said she has a “finely-tuned bulls**t-ometer so I don’t let it get that far and the answer is always no”.
In addition to Elon, 51, the Musk family also includes mother Maye Musk, 75 – a dietician and Sports Illustrated model - and her 50-year-old son Kimbal Musk, a restaurateur and founder of The Kitchen Restaurant Group. Their mother divorced their father, South African engineer and one-time emerald mine owner Errol Musk, in 1979.
In her memoir, A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, Beauty and Success, Maye Musk detailed working five jobs at once to support her three children as a single mom.
“There’s a perception that we had so much money growing up, but that is not the truth. After my parents divorced, my mum and brothers and I were together and we didn’t have any money,” Tosca shared with the DailyMail. “While there were some really, really horrible times, I try not to focus on those because that doesn’t get you anywhere. I had an incredible mother who took care of me, and great brothers.”
Tosca also opened up about how her famous last name has impacted her dating life. The filmmaker and producer is a mother to 10-year-old twins, daughter Isabeau and son Grayson, who were conceived through a sperm donor and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Speaking to the DailyMail, Tosca wondered whether potential suitors were “intimated” by her surname. “Listen, if they’re intimidated by my name or by me, then they probably aren’t the right person to ask me out in the first place,” she said.
Last year, the Passionflix founder shared that she was “incredibly proud” of her older brother Elon Musk, despite some of the negative opinions her children have been exposed to online. “I don’t like that my kids watch YouTube and there are jokes about my brother; it makes them feel a little uncomfortable. And they don’t understand why people would say [negative] things about him,” she said in an interview with The Sunday Times published in July 2022.
However, Tosca defended her older brother when she added that she’s “incredibly proud” of her sibling and the “phenomenon” he’s created. “He’s exceptional in so many ways and his goals to help humanity are beyond anything that anybody can imagine. So there’s no taint at all,” she said.
