Maye Musk flies solo. In her new book, the model opens up

holding out a silver flight suit. “I haven’t been, but it seems fun.” For a second I think she’s serious. After all, as the mother of tech genius Elon Musk, she’s got some inside knowledge of the subject. But though we’re surrounded by astronaut helmets and NASA patches, we’re not in one of her son’s top-secret labs. Instead we’re perched on a cliff in the Hollywood Hills, where Musk poses gamely for a retro-fabulous space fashion shoot inspired by one of Richard Avedon’s iconic Bazaar spreads. There are giant sunglasses and moon boots. There are reflective running jackets and piles of toy rockets. And there are trays of red CoverGirl lipsticks because as the eldest campaign star in the beauty brand’s history Musk is always prepared to go glam.

It wasn’t always the case. For most of her 20s, Musk was held captive in a viciously abusive marriage, one that left her penniless and fearing for her life. After escaping with her three children Elon, then eight; plus younger siblings Kimbal, now an eco-food mogul; and Tosca, a film producer and director she rebuilt her life as a dietitian and model for catalogues and department stores. (She would later walk couture for Dolce & Gabbana, “but that wasn’t until my 60s!”) Musk is finally ready to share her extraordinary journey, in the book A Woman Makes a Plan (Viking), which will be published December 31. It includes not just memories but also life advice, her beloved bean soup recipe, and never-before-seen photos from Musk’s family vault.

The story begins with her action-packed childhood. Born in Canada, Musk grew up mainly in South Africa, where her adventurous family searched for the fabled Lost City of the Kalahari in her father’s tiny plane. (“It sounds like DuckTales!” I tell her as we sip tea in her seaside condo. “Is that a cartoon?” she asks. “We didn’t have TV in South Africa. Over there a ducktail means a gangster.”) Then Musk reveals her journey from beauty pageant winner to renowned nutritionist, as well as her parenting path with three precocious children. “You want to know how to raise a genius? People ask me all the time,” she says. “But I think what I did was leave them alone to develop their own passions and give them the freedom to explore their own ideas. 

Of course, the kids had limits  they knew if they were disruptive when I was working, I wouldn’t have a job. Then they wouldn’t have a home! I was always truthful with them. I guess in a sense I didn’t treat them like children; I treated them like people.” It worked. When she encouraged Elon, then 12, to submit a computer program he’d designed to his favorite computer magazine, the publication not only printed it, but he received a check for $500. “I don’t think they knew he was 12,” she says with a laugh. “And there was the time that Tosca sold our house and car without asking me so we could move to Canada, where Elon was living. She was 15, but she acted like an adult, so nobody questioned her.” Musk’s reaction? “Maybe next time you can forge my signature better!”

But while Musk was raising free-range kids, she was also trapped in a violent marriage. “It was really uncomfortable to discuss at first,” she recalls. “People think I’m positive and fun. But I had to talk about what I endured,” including physical and emotional abuse and a decade’s worth of custody lawsuits post-divorce. “Everybody I knew called him ‘the Pig’ because he treated me so badly in public. And I was too scared to tell anyone [about the deeper violence]. Like every abused woman, I was embarrassed, and I knew I had made a mistake, you know?” Musk grimaces and hooks her long, pale fingers into one another. “He told me over and over that I was stupid, ugly, boring. He was very rich, but he made sure I had nothing. Once the kids were living with me, they visited their father some weekends. He would throw out everything they arrived with, so I had to buy them all new clothes and school things. Then he’d sue me and say that I was unfit to parent. He saw a blister on Tosca’s mouth and said I was malnourishing her. He saw a bruise on Kimbal’s arm— imagine, an active little boy with a bruise! and said I was beating him.”

According to the book, five-year-old Elon tried to stop his father from beating his mother by hitting him on the knees. Even so, when he was 10, Elon chose to move to his father’s home. “That’s because of his evil grandmother,” Musk says. “She made him feel guilty. She said, ‘Oh, your mother has all of you kids. Your father’s so hurt because he’s all alone. Do you want taught her how to eat properly. Says Musk, who at one time weighed more than 200 pounds, “I was still modeling, and I was South Africa’s only plus-size model! But as a nutritionist, I would tell my clients all the time how to eat, and it changed their lives. It took a little while to change my own, but I did it.” Among her go-to foods: easy-to-cook frozen vegetables like broccoli and carrots; hummus; cottage cheese; and whole wheat bread, which she assures her clients is “not evil.” There’s also her secret staple bean soup which was so cheap and satisfying, it nourished her family during their lean years. “I still make it all the time!” she says. “It is still so delicious.”

I mention that her life should be optioned for a movie. “Wouldn’t that be something?” she says. I wonder who should play all the characters, and we begin a little game. “Timothée Chalamet should play Kimbal just tall and joyful. He’s the new hot guy in Hollywood, isn’t he? So definitely Kimbal. I feel like Cameron Diaz could play Tosca. And Charlize Theron should absolutely be me because she can speak Afrikaans, as I do.” And what about Elon, the famous enigma behind so many inventions? “Oh, Elon is this strong guy with a great sense of humor,” she says. “He’s a little goofy, so the Rock!” We start laughing and can’t stop, even though Musk isn’t big on Fast & Furious she likes Law & Order: SVU and Dancing With the Stars instead.

I ask if she’ll move to Mars should Elon’s legendary space colony prove successful. “Only if the whole family is already going,” says Musk, who is close to all three of her children and her grandchildren, whom she frequently watches when their parents are working. “Do you know, once Tosca had a film launch and Elon had a rocket launch on the same day?” she says, laughing, explaining how she ended up babysitting seven grandchildren in one night. “You’d think with all their technology they could coordinate these things.”