It seemed like something out of a teen fantasy — the eccentric pop star and the tech billionaire, drawn together by a shared joke and a love for the surreal. But this time, the bad boy didn’t turn good, and there was no happy ending. Instead, it became a long, messy saga watched by millions.
Some relationships start with chemistry. Others start with a joke about a hypothetical AI torturer. Grimes and Elon Musk’s unlikely pairing began online, rooted in shared obsessions with futurism, tech, and irony — and quickly spiraled into one of the most visible, volatile relationships of the digital age. Their relationship quickly became the internet’s most surreal love story. And a tragic one to say the least.
When Indie Meets Industry
When Grimes (Claire Boucher) and Elon Musk went public with their relationship in May 2018 at the Met Gala, few knew that their romance had begun with a pun. Both had tweeted separately about Roko’s Basilisk, an obscure thought experiment involving an AI that punishes those who fail to help it come into existence. Musk slid into Grimes’ DMs, impressed by her having made the joke first — a highly specific courtship ritual only possible on Social Media.While Musk built rockets, Grimes imagined futuristic AI gods in her music. Their love for the otherworldly overlapped, but their political and ideological differences raised eyebrows. She was a left-leaning, genre-bending artist with roots in the Tumblr underground. He was a a billionaire entrepreneur heading Tesla and SpaceX, admired by venture capitalists and startup obsessives but increasingly polarizing due to erratic behavior and public controversies.
Despite — or because of — this planetary clash, they fascinated the public. Some fans saw their coupling as ironic performance art. Grimes’ fans, particularly those from queer and leftist spaces where she once thrived, felt alienated. They voiced confusion: how could a self-proclaimed anarchist who once critiqued capitalism align herself with one of the world's richest men?
Some accused Grimes of being “Elonpilled,” a sellout to the very systems her early persona had pushed against. Grimes, however, framed the relationship as intellectually stimulating. In interviews, she defended Musk, describing him as misunderstood and “deeply involved in art and engineering,” even collaborating with her on visuals and storylines.
Extremely Online, Emotionally Offline
Few modern relationships have been as online as this one. Twitter didn’t just document their romance — it shaped it. They met there, fought there, and even seemed to use it as a way to communicate when other channels broke down. What began as memes turned surreal.In 2020, Grimes gave birth to their first child, whom they named X Æ A-12 Musk. When California law didn’t allow numbers in names, they changed it to X AE A-Xii. Musk claimed to call him simply “X.” The naming choice sparked memes, mockery, and admiration — depending on who you asked.
In the years that followed, the couple offered a revolving-door narrative of their status. In 2021, Musk told Page Six they were “semi-separated” but still loved each other. In a 2022 Vanity Fair profile, Grimes revealed that they had secretly welcomed a second child via surrogate, named Exa Dark Sideræl (nicknamed “Y”). Hours after that article dropped, she tweeted that they had broken up again.
Me and E have broken up *again* since the writing of this article haha, but he's my best friend and the love of my life, and my life and art are forever dedicated to The Mission now, I think Devin wrote that part of the story rly well. Sique - peace out
— (@Grimezsz) March 10, 2022
In mid-2023, biographer Walter Isaacson revealed they had a third child, Techno Mechanicus (“Tau”), born quietly and kept out of the public eye until mentioned in his authorized biography of Musk.
As their family grew, so did their estrangement — and their digital breakdowns. Grimes posted cryptic tweets about pain, control, and being silenced. At one point, she publicly asked Musk to let her see one of the children on X, implying she was being blocked. The tweet was quickly deleted, but not before it ignited widespread speculation about the power dynamics between them. With every tweet, the narrative twisted further.
A Fairy Tale's Dark Descent
What began as a cultural oddity took a darker turn in 2023. Grimes filed to establish parental rights over her children, suggesting she was being cut out — both legally and emotionally. She mentioned fighting for a year in a state with inadequate maternal rights and facing financial hardship during the legal proceedings. Grimes emphasized the disparity in resources between her and Musk, noting that she had only a fraction of his wealth, which made the custody dispute particularly challenging. She expressed disappointment over Elon Musk's transformation during their relationship and stated,
"He is no longer the same. The man I fell in love with no longer exists."
Grimes’ message was clear: whatever shared simulation they’d once entered, the code had broken down. She isn’t the first to describe emotional strain under Musk’s shadow. His first wife, Justine Musk, once described their dynamic, in a viral essay in 2010, by saying it was “Elon’s way or the highway.” Musk once told her, “If you were my employee, I would fire you.” Actresses Talulah Riley and Amber Heard, who dated him in the 2010s, both described relationships marked by mood swings, emotional detachment, and imbalance. For Grimes, the fallout was uniquely public. And in her words, the man at the other end of the connection had logged off for good. What once looked eccentric or ironic began to resemble a pattern: Musk in relationships marked by power asymmetry and public fallout, and partners left to navigate emotional and legal aftermaths. The internet-born fairy tale ended not only with dramatic tweets, but with a custody case — a reminder that even the most surreal love stories are tethered to real-world consequences.