Grimes reportedly sues Elon Musk for parental rights of their children

Former couple shares three children together

Grimes has sued Elon Musk over a matter concerning the three children they share together, according to reports.

On 29 September, Grimes, born Claire Boucher, filed a “petition to establish parental relationship” in a California court, according to documents obtained by Page Six.

The petition is a means of identifying a child’s legal parents when they are unmarried. It can be used to begin proceedings for either child custody or child support orders. Grimes has yet to request either of them.

While the docket for the case is public, the filings have been sealed, Page Six reported. The outlet said it does not appear that Musk has responded to the petition.

The news comes weeks after the singer issued a public plea to Musk to see her son after author Walter Issacson shared a photo of Musk with his twins born in 2021. According to Issacson, Grimes was “outraged” to learn about the children Musk shares with Shivon Zilis at the same time as the general public. In a now-deleted tweet to Issacson, Grimes wrote: “Tell Shivon to unblock me and Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer.”

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

On 10 September, Grimes took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to de-escalate the narrative about her relationship with Zilis. “I spoke with Shivon at length finally, which was long overdue,” she posted.

“This wasn’t her fault, plz [sic] don’t be angry at her! We respect each other a lot and we’re excited to become friends and have the kids grow up together.”

“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 continued. “Women are so often pitted against each other. Speaking with Shivon, it’s very evident she’s an amazing human and we both just want what’s best for our kids.”

During this time, it was revealed by Issacson that Grimes and Musk had welcomed a third child together, a son named Techno Mechanius. Grimes also used her tweet to speak out about these reports, writing, “I wish I could show u [sic] how cute little Techno is but my priority rn [right now] is keeping my babies out of the public eye. Plz [sic] respect that at this time.”

Zilis responded to Grimes’ tweet, thanking her. “At the end of the day it all ended up for the best!” Zilis wrote back. “Thank you for taking the time to really connect and understand each other. So glad we had such a wonderful talk, was insanely overdue.”

“You’re a total bada** and I respect you very much as well,” she added. “I can’t wait for kiddo play date and congrats on baby Tau as well!”

Currently, Musk has 11 children with three different women. Five of them are with his former spouse, Justine Wilson. She gave birth to Nevada Alexander Musk in 2002 who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) when he was 10 weeks old. In April 2004 she went on to give birth to twins Vivian and Griffin Musk. They then used in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to welcome triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian in January 2006.

After beginning a relationship with Grimes in 2018, she gave birth to their son X AE A-XII, in May 2020. Grimes revealed in March 2022 that she and the SpaceX founder had welcomed his first daughter, named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, via surrogate in December 2021. Exa was given the nickname Y after their other child was named X. The tech giant secretly welcomed a third child with Grimes, named Techno Mechanicus, on 9 September 2023.

The Independent has contacted representatives for Grimes and Musk for comment.