Grimes says she was ‘going bankrupt’ during custody battle with Elon Musk

• Grimes shared new details about her custody dispute with her former partner, Elon Musk.
• Grimes wrote on X that she “spent a year locked in battle in a state with terrible mothers rights.”
• Grimes said she was “going bankrupt” during the dispute and had a “fraction” of Musk’s resources.

Grimes says she was “going bankrupt” during her custody dispute with Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk, with whom she shares three children.

Grimes, whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher, became embroiled in a custody dispute with Musk in 2023 over X Æ A-Xii, Exa Dark Sideræl, and Techno Mechanicus. Grimes and Musk filed separate lawsuits against each other that year in California and Texas, respectively. The case was sealed from the public last December, so it’s unclear if it is still ongoing.

Grimes and Musk have largely been quiet about the custody dispute, however Grimes on Wednesday shared some details about how going to court against her billionaire ex impacted her.

When asked on X, which Musk owns, why she hasn’t released many projects as of late, Grimes said that “the threat of losing ur kids while going bankrupt fighting for them is not very conducive to creative thoughts.”

“I just slept and cried every minute I wasn’t explicitly fighting for my kids during that year,” she said.

In another post, Grimes said much of her art output was shut down for four years because she was having kids and spent one year in court, presumably a reference to the case.

In a separate post, Grimes said she had only a “fraction” of Musk’s resources. Musk is the richest person in the world with a $315 billion net worth.

“Spent a year locked in battle in a state with terrible mothers rights having my instagram posts and modeling used as reasons I shouldn’t have my kids and fighting and detaching from the love of my life as he becomes unrecognizable to me, with a fraction of his resources (or iq/ strategy experience), all the while I didn’t see one of my babies for 5 months,” she said.

Representatives for Grimes and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment from to Business Insider.

Grimes appeared to be referring to X, the former couple’s oldest child who often appears publicly with Musk.

In September 2023 on the same day Musk filed his custody suit, Grimes wrote and quickly deleted an X post calling on Musk to “let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer.”

The state Grimes appeared to be referring to in reference to mothers’ rights was Texas, as a major battle in the custody dispute was whether the case should proceed in California, where Grimes argued the children lived, or Texas, which Musk’s team argued for.

Family law experts previously told BI that both Texas and California use the same standards for determining custody — the best interest of the child. However, Texas caps child-support payments at $2,760 for three children, while California has no cap. Meaning if the case included child-support orders, Musk could be ordered to pay a significantly larger amount in California.

Though the outcome of the case, or whether it is still ongoing, is unclear, Grimes and Musk did appear to be on good terms in April, when they shared a brief but apparently friendly exchange on X.

In July of this year Grimes’ mother said in a series of X posts that Musk was “withholding” the children from the rest of the family.

In August Grimes and Musk appeared in court in Austin, Texas. The hearing was closed to the public and press.

More recently Musk has been diving further into politics, with President-elect Donald Trump announcing the Tesla billionaire would co-lead a Department of Government Efficiency, also called DOGE.

The government advisory group’s stated goals include slashing government spending and trimming the federal government workforce.