Additional Coverage:
A deleted tweet from Maye Musk, mother of Elon Musk, sparked confusion on social media earlier this week when she responded to her son’s post while referring to herself in the third person. This led many users to speculate that Elon had mistakenly tweeted from his parents’ accounts without switching properly.
The original tweet from Elon, who owns the platform now known as X, read: “My grandmother was a housekeeper in England.” Maye replied, “Your mom told me she was cleaning toilets in a Liverpool boarding house as a child. When I met her in 1966, she was sewing linings for a furrier in a small windowless room behind the store.”
This unusual phrasing prompted users to suggest Elon might have been tweeting from his father’s account, not his mother’s. Comments quickly poured in, with one user joking, “Elon’s mom caught posting from the perspective of Elon’s dad.”
Another added, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to assume Elon is posting on Twitter as both his parents & was on the wrong alt.” Some called the mix-up “cringy,” while others described it as “pure cinema.”
Media commentator Dean Blundell weighed in, humorously dubbing Elon “the world’s worst ventriloquist,” noting that the billionaire appeared to be “operating his estranged father’s voice, from his mother’s account, to corroborate his own tweet about his grandmother-and pulled the wrong puppet out of the drawer.”
Supporters of Musk argued that Maye may have simply meant “grandmother” instead of “mom,” referring to Elon’s paternal grandmother, Cora Robinson, who did grow up in Liverpool. However, Blundell pointed out that the language in Maye’s reply aligns more logically with Errol Musk, Elon’s father. He noted the improbability that Maye, a published author and memoirist, would confuse her ex-husband’s mother with her own family member in such a public reply.
The social media platform’s AI chatbot, Grok, described the incident as a straightforward “mix-up.” It clarified that while some speculated Elon had tweeted from the wrong family account, biographies confirm that Maye was referring to Errol’s mother, Cora Amelia Robinson, who experienced a modest upbringing in Liverpool before relocating to South Africa.
This episode highlights how a simple family anecdote quickly morphed into widespread memes and speculation before the facts became clear. It’s not the first time Musk has faced accusations of impersonating others on the platform he owns, including members of his own family.