Garages are usually packed with old holiday decorations, dusty storage bins, and things nobody has touched in years. For Maye Musk, the mother of the world’s richest man, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, they are also perfectly acceptable places to sleep during family visits.
Last week, the 78-year-old model and author told E! News that she has never believed in demanding time from her children or grandchildren. Maye, who shares Elon, Kimbal, and Tosca with ex-husband Errol Musk, said, “There is no greater joy in my life than being a mother—and now a grandmother.”
Still, she made clear that family time comes without pressure.
“I’m always here for them, ready with advice, support or a listening ear,” Maye said. “But I never demand their time.”
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A Garage Full Of Boxes Beat A Long Hotel Drive
That same easygoing attitude apparently extends to sleeping arrangements too. “I could sleep in a hotel 45 minutes away, or in his garage,” Maye told E! News in an interview last year while recalling visits to Elon during his earlier SpaceX days in California.
“He had a single bed there. And everybody says, ‘Oh, was it fabulous?’ I said, ‘No, there were boxes. It’s a garage. There were boxes.’ I would rather sleep on a single bed rather than at a hotel 45 minutes away. There’s no point in visiting then.”
The setup was not exactly what most people picture when they think of a billionaire’s family. But Maye made clear convenience mattered more than luxury.
She also said this was hardly the first time she had made a garage work as a guest room.
“When my mom had a home in Canada, she had a garage as well and didn’t have a spare room for me,” Maye said. “So I sleep in the garage every time I visit her, I just put a bed in it.”
Then came the line that summed up her approach to family visits: “I couch surf, whatever’s available. I’d rather see my kids and grandkids than be in comfort.”
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Elon’s Tiny Home Fit His Minimalist Lifestyle
While Elon has become known for his immense wealth through Tesla and SpaceX, he has also spent years talking about living with fewer physical possessions.
“My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica/Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though,” he wrote on X in 2021.
He later joked that upgrades pushed the value closer to $69,000.
The compact Texas home became part of Elon’s broader minimalist phase after he sold much of his California real estate portfolio between 2020 and 2021. Texas later became even more central to SpaceX operations as Starbase evolved into a growing company town tied to rocket launches and development.
That shift has also mirrored growing interest in alternative ways to invest in housing. Arrived allows people to invest in fractional shares of rental homes with a starting …
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