New York: Elon Musk, father of 12 children with different partners, has led an eventful life.
His personal life has been as much of a talking point as his innovations, investments and entrepreneurship.
He was once in a relationship with Canadian musician Grimes, known offstage as Claire Elise Boucher.
The couple had three children – four-year-old X Æ A-XII (‘baby X’), and two-year-old Exa Dark Sideræl and Tau Techno Mechanicus — over a period of three-and-a-half years, one of them through surrogacy.
Their separation wasn’t a smooth affair, as Grimes recently opened up about the emotional and financial toll of her year-long custody battle with the tech mogul.
Grimes, in a series of posts on X — a platform owned by her ex-boyfriend — revealed how the legal battle for their three children impacted her mental health, career and identity as a mother.
Grimes claimed that she was “going bankrupt” as the custody battle left her emotionally drained and financially crippled.
“The thought of losing my children while going bankrupt was not conducive to creative thoughts… I just slept and cried every minute I wasn’t explicitly fighting for my kids during that year,” Grimes wrote.
“Spent a year locked in battle in a state with terrible mothers’ rights, having my Instagram posts and modelling used as reasons I shouldn’t have my kids,” Grimes stated, adding that she was kept apart from one of her children for five months during the custody battle.
Grimes talked about personal and political evolution of a man he once loved very much.
“I fought and detached from the love of my life as he became unrecognisable to me, with a fraction of his resources,” she wrote.
The legal proceedings were settled last December.