Who is Jana Bezuidenhout? All about Errol Musk’s stepdaughter amid sexual abuse allegations

South African businessman and politician Errol Musk, best known as tech billionaire Elon Musk’s estranged father, is facing sexual abuse allegations from five of his children and stepchildren, according to a report by The New York Times published on September 23.

One of the main accusers is Errol Musk’s former stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, who claimed that when she was 4 years old, her stepdad inappropriately touched her. The incident reportedly occurred in 1993. A decade later, Jana allegedly told her family members that she caught Errol sniffing her dirty underwear.

According to Jana Bezuidenhout’s Instagram bio, she is an artist and a mother. The 38-year-old is also a former romantic partner of her ex-stepfather and has given birth to two of his children, as per PEOPLE reports.

According to The Times, at least three police reports were filed, and investigations were opened against the Musk family patriarch. However, two of them ended inconclusively, while the status of the third one remains undisclosed.

Errol Musk hasn’t been convicted of any crimes as of writing. He also denied the latest accusations to The Times, claiming “the reports are false and nonsense in the extreme.”

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More about Errol Musk’s relationship with Jana Bezuidenhout

Errol Musk married his third wife, Heide Bezuidenhout, in 1992. But they separated a few years later, before divorcing in 2010. During their marriage, he was a stepfather to Heide’s daughter from a past relationship, Jana, who was 4 years old.

Speaking on the Australian radio show, The Kyle and Jackie O Show on KISS 1965 in August 2022, Errol Musk mentioned that he was involved in Jana Bezuidenhout’s life on and off during her childhood but did not see or hear from her for years after his divorce from Heide. He also mentioned they did not have a close relationship at the time.

In 2014, Jana reportedly reached out to Errol to say she was “battling” financially as a single mother with an 8-year-old daughter. This is when the duo reconnected and Musk offered to help her former stepdaughter, whom he described as a “lovely girl.”

Subsequently, a romantic relationship developed between Jana Bezuidenhout and Errol Musk, which the latter called “completely normal” during his appearance on the Kyle and Jackie O Show.

Together, they welcomed two children, a son named Elliot “Rushi” Musk in 2019 and a daughter in 2022. While the couple is no longer together, they co-parent their children in South Africa, according to SCMP and PEOPLE.

According to Errol Musk’s past interview with VladTV, Jana and his daughter moved in with him in 2014 after she split with her former partner. Later, he also told The Sunday Times of London in 2018 that the union was a “god’s plan or nature’s plan” and helped out two “lonely, lost people.”

In the wake of the latest allegations, Errol told The New York Times that the accusations were false and made up by family members to seemingly create a scandal and extort money from his eldest son and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. Musk Sr. also told the outlet that he was aware of one abuse accusation but offered “explanations for the circumstances around two others.”

Elon Musk hasn’t spoken about the scandal publicly yet. However, his dad told The Times that they have become “very close” in recent times.

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How did Elon Musk respond to his father's relationship with Jana Bezuidenhout?

Biographer Walter Isaacson wrote a 2022 book on the SpaceX founder, where he mentioned Elon reacting “furiously” upon learning that Errol was becoming “uncomfortably attentive to one of his stepdaughters, Jana,” when she was a teenager in 2002.

"Elon became furious at his father for what he perceived to be inappropriate behaviour, and he developed a deep sympathy — and tugging sense of kinship — for Errol's stepchildren. He knew what they had to live with," the book reads.

Errol called the claims “balderdash” in an email statement to Business Insider in September 2023, adding that he was “attentive to all five children in the same way.” According to the businessman-politician, he had to pay extra attention to his stepkids after learning they felt like he favored his biological children.

"There was nothing uncomfortable. One afternoon, I went into Jana's room to repair the dressing room light. Jana had asked me to do this, but when Jana found me in her room, she complained. I understood her concern and agreed to ask her first next time. That was it," he shared an alleged incident from November 2002.

Elon Musk’s memoir also mentioned that it was on Father’s Day 2022 that Elon Musk learned that Errol Musk had fathered two children with Bezuidenhout.

"The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce. If I could have another child, I would. I can't see any reason not to," Errol Musk was quoted as saying in his son’s biography.

The Tesla CEO also called his father “a terrible human being” in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, in response to Errol Musk’s relationship with Jana.

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As per The New York Times reports, the alleged abuse incidents happened in both California, USA, and South Africa, where Errol Musk, 79, divides his time living and working.

Besides Jana, two of his biological daughters and a stepson have also accused him of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, his 5-year-old son complained in 2023 that Errol Musk groped him. At the time, social workers and family members got involved.

Errol Musk was married thrice and has seven children and two stepchildren. He and his first wife, Maye Haldeman, shared three kids: Elon, Kimbal, and Tosca. Errol and Heide welcomed two daughters, Alexandra and Asha Rose. Elon Musk’s father was also married to a woman named Sue.