Inside Grimes and Elon Musk's fractured relationship after bitter custody battle

Elon Musk is thrilled to be finally finished with his bitter custody battle with singer Grimes. As the business tycoon celebrates his 56th birthday today (June 28), Elon is also welcoming his newfound trillionaire status.

The entrepreneur, 58, and the musician, 38, were an item for four years before splitting in 2022. Yet they've continued to generate headlines with their horrific falling out in the public eye.

While Elon continues to have issues with his other children's mothers, his legal troubles with Grimes over X A-12, aged six; Exa Dark Siderl Musk, four; and Techno Mechanicus, four came to an end at the end of 2024. However, the decision came after a whirlwind relationship that the pair threw themselves into.

So, as the trillionaire SpaceX boss celebrates his birthday, let's examine his doomed relationship with Grimes.

The duo made their first red carpet appearance as a couple in May 2018, shortly after rumours emerged of their blossoming romance. Though it was rather turbulent from the start, with them breaking up and reconciling multiple times during their four-year relationship.

It was confirmed that they were back together when the singer announced in January 2020 that she was pregnant. Two months later, she disclosed in a Rolling Stone interview that the Tesla boss was indeed the father of her child.

The pair "experienced a lot of ups and downs in their relationship," around this time, a source revealed to Us, "[They] have been on and off. Through it all though, they have and will continue to maintain a close friendship."

In July 2020, Musk's "pronouns suck" post ignited a storm, prompting her public response. "I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a [call]," she wrote, "I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn't your heart."

However, in April 2021, she defended Musk when TikTok users labelled him a "men's rights activist," countering with, "He's not. Def he's been very immature at points on Twitter but for [example] the president of spaceX is a woman, as is his right hand [person] at Neuralink, etc."

In September 2021, the tech mogul announced they had split after three years together. He added in a statement: "[We] still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms."

This was swiftly followed by Grimes' song 'Love', penned during their breakup. A line from the song goes: "It f****** sucks to be awake / Oh, Lord, I pray my soul to take. Nobody understands because everything they hate is everything I love."

In a March 2022 Vanity Fair profile, she also revealed that the couple had welcomed their second child, daughter Exa Dark Siderl, through surrogate pregnancy in December 2021. "I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid," she remarked at the time.

"We live in separate houses. We're best friends. We see each other all the time. ... We just have our own thing going on, and I don't expect other people to understand."

But several hours after the piece was published, Grimes announced that the pair had called it quits. Fast-forward to September 2023, and the former couple welcomed their third child, son Techno Mechanicus.

A year following their break-up, Us Weekly confirmed that she was taking legal action against her ex for parental rights of their children and lodged a "petition to establish parental relationship". In 2024, she also disclosed to followers that she had not seen one of her children for "five months" during her ongoing custody dispute with Musk.

She posted on X: "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.

"Spent a year locked in battle in a state with terrible mother's rights. 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)."

The official ruling was not made public, though Tesla mogul was later spotted pulling their children into the political sphere which came after blindsiding Grimes by bringing their eldest, X, onto a live White House meeting with Trump without warning her beforehand.

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