EXCLUSIVE: Elon Musk filed custody suit against Grimes first, asking for 'relationship' with his children
(Gyula Bartos/Hungarian President's Press Office/MTI via AP)
- Grimes filed a custody suit against Elon Musk in San Francisco late last month.
- But Insider learned Musk sued Grimes first, to "establish the parent-child relationship" with his kids.
- He claims she moved to California "in an apparent attempt to circumvent jurisdiction" of Texas courts.
Headlines around the world announced this week that Grimes had sued Elon Musk for custody of their three children, but it was Musk himself who first quietly sued Grimes last month, Insider has learned.
On September 7, the Tesla CEO sued his sometimes-girlfriend Grimes to establish a relationship and access to his children and accused her of moving to California to escape the reach of Texas courts.
In filings obtained by Insider, Musk said he wanted to "establish the parent-child relationship" with his and Grimes' children X, who is 3, and one-year-olds Exa (or Y) and Tau. He said Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, lived with him and their children from May to July of this year. He also claimed she moved to California "in an apparent attempt to circumvent jurisdiction" of Texas courts.
Musk said, in the filings, he believed the custody dispute would settle, but wanted Texas courts to weigh in if it didn't. His case was served to Grimes on September 13, and she filed her own suit against Musk on September 29. Grimes' lawsuit is requesting physical custody of the children and includes a "standard restraining order" that would prevent the children from being moved out of California by either parent.
Musk asserted that disclosing information about the case "would jeopardize the health, safety or liberty" of himself, Grimes, and their children. The case would be hard for an outsider to find; the children's names weren't used, Musk was identified only by his middle initial, "R.," and Grimes by hers, "E." A hearing was originally set for Friday, but it was canceled after the parties agreed to a seal, according to a court official.
Lawyers for Musk and Grimes declined to comment and Musk didn't respond to efforts to reach him.
Musk and Grimes have had a contentious relationship
It's just the latest dust-up over the Musk children between Musk and Grimes, the musician with whom he's been in an on-again, off-again relationship since 2018.
Grimes' younger two children with Musk have mostly avoided the limelight. But her eldest son, X, has become a common figure in Musk's orbit. The three-year-old has attended live interviews with Musk, met with international leaders, and attended SpaceX rocket launches.
In the past, Grimes has said she'd prefer to keep her children out of the public eye.
"Whatever is going on with family stuff, I just feel like kids need to stay out of it, and X is just out there," she told Vanity Fair last year. "I mean, I think E is really seeing him as a protégé and bringing him to everything and stuff."
Though the couple first broke up in 2021, until recently their relationship has appeared cordial. Grimes even continued to live with Musk in Austin for a period after they first broke up.
Last month, the singer appeared to reference a legal issue with Musk in a post she quickly wrote and then deleted on X.
"Tell Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer," Grimes wrote in the since-deleted September 7 post.
Grimes posted on X in response to a photo of Musk alongside Shivon Zilis, another one of the women he has fathered children with.
Musk has 10 known living children with three different women. In a biography on Musk, Walter Isaacson wrote that the billionaire kept his decision to father a child with Zilis, an executive at one of his startups, from Grimes and the singer only learned of it when it was revealed by Insider last year. Both Zilis and Grimes' surrogates were pregnant at the same time.
Grimes also referenced Zilis in her post on X, saying she'd never even been "allowed" to see pictures of Zilis' children with Musk, and the situation was "ripping my family apart."
Grimes and Zilis later appeared to address the situation on social media, saying on September 10 that they were no longer feuding.
Musk never responded to Grimes' comments on X. Just three days prior, he had filed his suit in Texas.