Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘ ex-wife Grimes, the musician formerly known as Claire Boucher, recently revealed the financial and emotional toll of her custody battle with billionaire Elon Musk. In a series of candid social media posts, she described the challenges of fighting for her children while facing potential bankruptcy.
The couple, who share three children, X Æ A-Xii, Exa Dark Sideræl, and Techno Mechanicus, became embroiled in a legal dispute in the year 2023 when Musk filed custody suit. The specifics of the case remain largely undisclosed due to a confidentiality agreement, but Grimes has alluded to the significant impact it had on her life.
While replying to a user on Elon Musk-owned platform X on why is is not making music anymore, Grimes said that the stress and uncertainty of the legal proceedings hindered her creative output. The fear of losing her children, coupled with the financial strain of the legal battle, led to a period of emotional turmoil and reduced productivity. “Because the threat of losing ur kids while going bankrupt fighting for them is not very conducive to creative thoughts. I just slept and cried every minute I wasn’t explicitly fighting for my kids during that year.”
Grimes also highlighted the disparity in resources between herself and her ex-partner. Despite her own wealth, she felt disadvantaged in the legal system, especially considering the differences in child support regulations between California and Texas.
She also followed up with a long post where she wrote how her Instagram posts and modeling day photos were used to prove her to be a bad mother. Grimes wrote the lengthy in response to a fan who suggested she release her Book 1 project.
“My new shit is so elevated beyond that – after everything I’ve been thru – I am keeping the best of book 1 for the new stuff but I’ve never been better in my life than right now, and I spent a lot of my time off with babies getting in my ten thousand hours of creative writing and mastering the art which I’ve never had – but I think I’m in new sound design territory too, I feel like I found my Atticus Ross as well in my friend VADAKIN, and I feel like I have to follow the path I’m on. Having babies rips you apart and puts you back together. Babies are ten thousand philosophy classes of shit you can only learn from that experience. Spent a year locked in battle in a state with terrible mothers rights having my instagram posts and modeling 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), all the while I didn’t see one of my babies for 5 months. And this is only what can be said publicly, since most of my experience these last years should remain behind closed doors. Poetry and pure raw emotion are pouring out of my soul at a rate I’ve never known, and Im improving deeply as a producer past the technical and back to the art after now knowing my craft so much better. + I’ve found the creative partners I’ve always wanted. So I hate to waste everyone’s time, but I have to make what I’m making right now. And it might be upsetting and provocative to many, but it’s real and the people who will feel me will feel me. And all that said I’m grateful for every bullet I caught. Cuz I feel on top of the world right now. And everything that used to give me anxiety feels like child’s play after all this. Ego death, ego birth – it’s everything an artist could dream of,” she wrote.
While the ultimate outcome of the custody case remains unknown, recent public interactions and legal proceedings suggest amicable relationship between the Elon Musk and her.