Grimes sues Musk over parental rights to their three children

Grimes, the Canadian electronic musician, is suing Elon Musk, the multibillionaire, over parental rights involving their three children.

Elon Musk and Grimes have three children from their on-off relationship, which began in 2018. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

Grimes, the Canadian electronic musician, is suing Elon Musk, the multibillionaire, over parental rights involving their three children.

The performer, whose real name is Claire Boucher, filed a “petition to establish parental relationship” in San Francisco last week. The document asks a court to legally identify the parents of a child, often needed in cases where the parents are unmarried. Establishing parentage is necessary before a judge can rule on custody, visitation rights or child support.

Details of the case are not public and Musk does not appear to have filed a response. Grimes, 35, began a relationship with Musk in 2018.

They never married. Their three-year-old son is named X AE A-XII and their one-year-old daughter is Exa Dark Sideræl. A recent biography of Musk, 52, by Walter Isaacson disclosed a third child – “Tau” Techno Mechanicus, a boy whose age is unclear.

Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, filed a “petition to establish parental relationship” in San Francisco last week. Picture: Eli Russell Linnetz

There have been signs of friction between the pair. Grimes responded angrily last month to a picture shared by Isaacson on Twitter/X, the site owned by Musk. She wrote: “Tell Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer.” The photograph showed Musk’s twins with Shivon Zilis, 37, an executive at his company Neuralink.

Grimes said: “I have never even been allowed to see a photo of these children until this moment, despite the situation utterly ripping my family apart.”

She later apologised for the post but it was unclear to which of her sons she was referring. Musk, who has been divorced three times, has 11 children. He says population collapse poses a greater risk to civilisation than climate change.

Musk, the former chairman of Tesla, has a troubled relationship with his transgender daughter, 19. She filed a petition last year to change her name from Xavier to Vivian Jenna Wilson. Musk partially blamed a private school in Los Angeles for subjecting her to “progressive woke indoctrination”.