Elon Musk’s long-running custody dispute with the Canadian musician Grimes has quietly concluded in the United States, ending a bruising legal fight just as the Tesla chief marked his 56th birthday and renewed attention on his disputed status as a “trillionaire.”
The case centered on the couple’s three young children: X Æ A-12, Exa Dark Sideræl, and Techno Mechanicus. Court records show the petition was resolved at the close of 2024, but they do not publicly disclose which parent has primary custody or what arrangements were made for travel, schooling, or public appearances.
Both parents have remained largely silent about the settlement. Grimes’s social media posts before the resolution offered a rare glimpse into the emotional toll of the battle, including one striking message in which she accused unnamed parties of using her online persona and modeling career against her in the fight for her children.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Grimes and Elon Musk’s custody case over their three children ended in late 2024, according to court records.
- Grimes accused Musk’s side of using her Instagram posts and modelling work to argue that she should not have custody.
- The former couple began dating in 2018, welcomed their first child in 2020, and split in 2022.
- The final custody arrangements have not been publicly released.
- Musk has continued to bring one of the children, X, into public political settings.
A Relationship That Began With an AI Joke
Grimes and Musk first became linked in public when they appeared together at the Met Gala in May 2018. Reports at the time said the pair had connected over a shared joke about artificial intelligence before their red-carpet debut. Friends were quick to warn that the relationship would be intense, with one source describing the couple as having “experienced a lot of ups and downs” and being “on and off” from early on.
By January 2020, Grimes confirmed she was pregnant. Two months later, she publicly named Musk as the father of her child. Their son, X, was born that spring and instantly became a global talking point, not only because of his famous parents but also because of his unusual name.
The couple’s relationship unfolded in public in a way that made privacy almost impossible. Musk’s ownership of X, then known as Twitter, and Grimes’s active fan communities meant every small remark could become a headline. The pair often used social media to communicate with each other and with the public in real time, which only increased the intensity of their very public private life.
First Signs of Strain
In July 2020, Musk posted “pronouns suck” on X, then Twitter. The post drew immediate backlash. Grimes responded publicly: “I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a [call]. I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your ♡.” It was one of the first times the couple’s disagreements were aired where millions of followers could see them.
By April 2021, Grimes was defending Musk on TikTok after users called him a “men’s rights activist.” She argued that the president of SpaceX and a senior figure at Neuralink were women. The defence, however, did not signal stability in their relationship. In September 2021, Musk told reporters that he and Grimes had “semi-separated” after three years together, though he insisted they still loved each other, saw each other frequently, and were on great terms.
Days later, Grimes released a song called Love, with lyrics that suggested a very different emotional reality: “It f sucks to be awake / Oh, Lord, I pray my soul to take. Nobody understands because everything they hate is everything I love.” The carefully produced public image of two people on excellent terms was hard to reconcile with those words.
The Second and Third Children
In March 2022, a Vanity Fair profile revealed that Grimes and Musk had quietly welcomed a second child, a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl, through a surrogate in December 2021. In the profile, Grimes called Musk her “boyfriend” but described the relationship as “very fluid.” The couple were living in separate houses and described themselves as “best friends” who saw each other all the time.
Within hours of the profile being published, Grimes posted online that she and Musk had split again. The public later learned that the couple had also had a third child, a son named Techno Mechanicus. The details of that child’s birth were not immediately shared.
The pattern of private milestones becoming public news, often through interviews, social media, or magazine profiles, made the custody case almost unavoidable. When the relationship finally broke down, the legal system became the forum where their private disagreements would be resolved.
The Custody Battle
In 2023, Grimes filed a petition in a US court to establish a parental relationship with Musk. The filing was the first legal step toward securing formal custody and support orders. According to reports, she sought to clarify her legal rights over X, who was six at the time, and the two younger children, both four.
By 2024, Grimes began speaking more openly about the emotional cost. She told followers that she had not seen one of her children for five months, blaming a legal battle in a state she described as having terrible mother’s rights. That claim could not be independently verified, but it highlighted the deep frustration she was experiencing.
In one especially raw message, she wrote: “Having babies rips you apart and puts you back together. Babies are ten thousand philosophy classes of s- you can only learn from that experience.” She continued: “Having my Instagram posts and modelling used as reasons I shouldn’t have my kids and fighting and detaching from the love of my life as he becomes unrecognizable to me, with a fraction of his resources (or iq/ strategy experience).”
Grimes did not name Musk directly in that post, but the implication was clear. She was suggesting that her public persona, built in part through her music career and visual identity, was being used against her in the legal proceedings. The allegation that her Instagram and modelling work were cited in custody arguments was not reflected in public court filings, and no detailed judgment has been released.
Lawyers for Musk and Grimes have not commented on the claims. The lack of official detail has left Grimes’s posts as the main window into the case. Court records confirm that the petition was filed and resolved, but they do not state who holds primary custody or what conditions were agreed for travel and schooling.
Grimes’s complaint about having “a fraction of his resources” also carried a broader meaning beyond money. Musk controls X, meaning any dispute that spilled onto the platform took place on infrastructure owned by the other side. That asymmetry was difficult for many observers to miss.
Children in the Political Spotlight
Even after the custody case was resolved, Musk continued to bring their children into highly public settings. He was later seen bringing X into a live White House meeting with Donald Trump, without first warning Grimes, according to reports. For a child whose name became a meme at birth, it was another round of scrutiny he could not choose for himself.
Musk’s wider family life remains complicated. He has several other children from previous relationships and has faced separate tensions there, although not all of those disputes have ended up in court in the same way as his relationship with Grimes. The specific nature of this case was shaped by the very public beginning of the relationship and by the platforms on which so much of it was experienced.
The custody battle may have ended, but the public story of the couple, and of their three children, continues. Grimes accused Musk of becoming unrecognisable to her, while Musk has continued to place family life at the centre of his political and public image. There is no neat way to measure what the fight did to trust between the two parents, or to the three small children caught in the middle.