Her parents, Winnifred Josephine "Wyn" (Fletcher) and Joshua Norman Haldeman, a former director of Technocracy Incorporated, a former Regina chiropractor and amateur archaeologist,[7][8][9] were adventurous and flew the family around the world in a prop plane in 1952.

She has an older brother Scott who was born around 1942 in Canada, a twin sister Kaye, who is the mother of Russ Rive, who co-founded both SuperViz in 2018 and the Brazillian interactive media design company SuperUber in 2002, and the co-founders of SolarCity Lyndon and Peter Rive, and a younger brother Angkor Lee who was born in 1955.

Two years later, Elon, who was about 10 at the time, decided to live with his father, as he had the Encyclopaedia Britannica and a computer, things which Maye could not afford to give the children as a single parent.

[18] Maye earned a master's degree in dietetics from the University of the Orange Free State in South Africa.

[21][22] In 2022, at age 74, she was the oldest Sports Illustrated swimsuit model to date, appearing on the cover of the annual issue.

[18] She wrote a memoir titled A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, Beauty, and Success (2019).

[26] In April 2023, Musk received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Free State in South Africa for her work as a dietitian.

However after unnamed Democrats allegedly said that her son "Elon is terrible", she thought the party was "malicious and dishonest", and changed to Republican.

[29] In October 2024, Musk made a post on X recommending Republican voters should commit fraud during the 2024 United States presidential election, by voting under false names multiple times, purporting that Democrats were already doing so using "illegals".