IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Grimes sues Elon Musk over parental rights

Grimes, whose legal name is Claire Boucher, filed a petition to establish a parental relationship Friday in San Francisco Superior Court.
Grimes and Elon Musk atHeavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala
Grimes and Elon Musk at the Met Gala in New York City on May 7, 2018. Frazer Harrison / FilmMagic file

Singer-songwriter Grimes has sued Elon Musk over parental rights, filing a petition last week against the billionaire mogul, with whom she has three children, according to a court docket.

Grimes, the Canadian musician whose legal name is Claire Boucher, filed a petition to establish a parental relationship Friday in San Francisco Superior Court.

Court documents are not available. A notice of alternative dispute resolution methods was also filed that day.

Representatives for Musk and Grimes were not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

Musk and Grimes first had a son together, named X Æ A-12, and then a daughter born via surrogate in 2021 named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk. They refer to them as "X" and "Y."

It was reported last month that the couple also had a third child together, revealed in a biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson. The child is a boy named Techno Mechanicus, affectionately called Tau, according to the New York Times review of the book.

Last month, Jezebel reported that Grimes begged Musk to allow her to see their son in a reply to a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, which Musk owns. She wrote in response to Isaacson, who posted a photo of twins Musk had with tech executive Shivon Zilis, according to a screenshot shared by Jezebel.

"Tell Shivon to unblock me and tell Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer," the reply said, according to Jezebel and other outlets. "I have never been allowed to see a photo of these children until this moment, despite the situation utterly ripping my family apart.”

Grimes' post appears to have been deleted. She posted on Sept. 10 apologizing for her post and confirming the third child.

"I truly apologize for responding to Walter like that. As u can imagine, that was a very gut level reaction to a thing that has been very hard for me," Grimes wrote in the Sept. 10 post. "Communication about the twins wasn’t handled super well in the past, but I now totally understand what happened and totally forgive the situation."

She also said that she wanted to "de-escalate the narrative" and that her priority was to keep her children "out of the public eye."