Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mother, says she almost turned down her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover because she worried about her wrinkles. She describes it in her new memoir, “Timeless: The Art of Reinvention and Resilience at Any Age,” published by Harper Wave. Maye is 78. She was 74 when the cover came out in 2022.
What she says
The cover was shot in Belize. Maye says she hesitated because of the wrinkles and cellulite that come with age. She frames the lesson as embracing who you are and not apologizing for it. Her line for readers is short: “You’re never too old to start again.”
The record
At 74, Maye was the oldest model to appear on the cover of the Swimsuit issue. Martha Stewart later beat that record at 81, in 2023. Maye is a model and a dietitian. In the book she also gives dietary advice: she says weight loss gets harder with age, and she tells readers to plan ahead and keep track of what they eat.
Why it is getting attention
Maye is the mother of Elon, Kimbal and Tosca Musk, and she is one of the family’s most public members. She has a modeling and dietitian career of her own, and a story about her own doubts is easy to share.
Our take: this is a story from a memoir, so it is Maye’s own account of her own decision, and we have not read the book. The detail worth keeping is the age: a 74-year-old model on the cover of the Swimsuit issue, and a record that held for about a year. For more on her views on family and work, see Maye Musk’s advice to Elon on running one company and Maye Musk Says Her Kids Never Chased Money.
