Accounts place the serious bullying of Elon Musk at Bryanston High School in Johannesburg, before he transferred to Pretoria Boys High School. Walter Isaacson’s biography describes him as unusually small for his class at the time and struggling to read social cues, and recounts a group assault that left him hospitalized. Those details offer context, not a proven single reason for the bullying—and they do not excuse the attackers.
What happened at Bryanston High School?
Musk spent his first two years of high school at Bryanston, according to The Guardian’s 2025 account. It reports that the hounding culminated in Musk being thrown down stairs and hospitalized. He later moved with his brother Kimbal to Pretoria Boys High School.
Walter Isaacson’s biography gives a more detailed version of the assault in an excerpt published by CBS News. It says Musk called another student stupid during an exchange at assembly. At recess, a group found him, kicked him and pushed him down concrete steps. Kimbal described the injuries as severe; the excerpt says Musk was out of school for a week.
Why was he bullied?
The accounts suggest possible context, but they do not establish a definitive cause. Isaacson describes Musk as one of the youngest and smallest students in his class for a time, and as someone who had difficulty picking up social cues. Such traits may have made him stand out, but the available accounts do not show that they caused the bullying.
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Isaacson’s account also includes a disputed explanation for the confrontation. Musk’s father said Musk had insulted the student, whose father had died by suicide. The excerpt says Musk and Kimbal disputed their father’s version. That explanation should therefore be treated as contested, not as settled fact or justification for the attack.
What is known—and what remains unclear?
The Guardian’s 2025 reporting independently describes the school setting and hospitalization, while Isaacson’s excerpt supplies the detailed sequence and the disputed account of what preceded the assault. The excerpt is Isaacson’s biographical account, not independent corroboration of that account.
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Sources also differ on duration. A 2021 Guardian profile says Musk was hospitalized for two weeks; the CBS excerpt says he was out of school for a week. These may measure different things, but the sources do not resolve the discrepancy. The Guardian’s 2025 report confirms hospitalization without specifying how long it lasted.
Was Musk bullied throughout high school?
The accounts do not support describing him as bullied at every school or throughout all of high school. The reported severe bullying took place at Bryanston, before the move to Pretoria Boys High School. The Guardian’s 2025 report quotes a former Pretoria classmate who remembered Musk as well liked and as having a group of friends there.
Further reading
For Isaacson’s full biographical reconstruction, see Elon Musk; CBS News published an excerpt from the book at the link above.
