Grimes, has taken to the digital airwaves to unveil the deeply personal anguish she endured during a year-long custody battle with her former partner, billionaire Elon Musk. In a new unfiltered post on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), Grimes laid bare the emotional turmoil that threatened to consume her as she fought to maintain her parental rights.
The couple’s familial tug-of-war centered around their three children – sons X Æ A-Xii, 4, and Techno Mechanicus, 2, as well as daughter Exa Dark Sideræl, 3. Grimes minced no words in her description of the experience, declaring that “having babies rips you apart and puts you back together.” She went on to lament the “ten thousand philosophy classes of s—” that mothers must confront in the throes of parenthood.
The custody proceedings, she revealed, were waged in a state with “terrible mothers’ rights,” where her very social media presence and modeling work were used as ammunition against her. “Spent a year locked in battle… 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.”
Grimes refrained from divulging which of her children she was separated from during this tumultuous period, but the emotional scars were palpable in her words. “And this is only what can be said publicly, since most of my experience these last years should remain behind closed doors.”
Yet, even amidst the anguish, Grimes has found solace in her creative pursuits, revealing that “poetry and pure raw emotion are pouring out of my soul at a rate I’ve never known.” She also expressed a newfound mastery of her craft, stating that she is “improving deeply as a producer past the technical and back to the art.”
While acknowledging that her upcoming work may “be upsetting and provocative to many,” Grimes remains steadfast in her determination to channel her experiences into her art. “And it might be upsetting and provocative to many, but it’s real and the people who will feel me will feel me.”
In a reflective tone, Grimes expressed a sense of resilience, declaring that she “feel[s] on top of the world right now” and that “everything that used to give [her] anxiety feels like child’s play after all this.”