Technology mogul Elon Musk is being sued by his ex-girlfriend, who claims she is being kept from seeing one of their three children.
Musk has fathered at least 11 children with three women. He has called for people to have large families, warning of a potential population collapse.
Musician Grimes, Musk’s ex-girlfriend, sued the Tesla co-founder in California on Sept. 29 to “petition to establish parental relationship” in order to affirm who is the children’s legal parent, according to Radar Online.
Musk and Grimes share son X Æ A-12 “X” born in May 2020, daughter Exa Dark Sideræl Musk who was born in December 2021, and son Techno Mechanicus “Tau.” The date of their second son’s birth is unknown.
The couple has had an on-and-off-again relationship since they began dating in May of 2018. They were never married and are not currently together.
Grimes, who carried their first child, revealed to Vanity Fair in March of 2022 that the couple had a daughter who was born via surrogate. Their third child was also reportedly born via surrogate.
Musk is the father of six children — including a set of twins and a set of triplets — with his first ex-wife, author Justine Wilson. Their first child, Nevada Alexander Muck, was born in 2002 and died of sudden infant death syndrome at 10 weeks old.
He also shares twins, Striber and Azure, with Shivon Zilis, a 37-year-old executive at Musk’s Neuralink. The children were born in November 2021 via surrogate, but their existence did not become publicly known until July 2022.
When news of his second set of twins broke, Musk wrote on social media that he was doing his “best to help the underpopulation crisis.”
“A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far,” he wrote.
“I hope you have big families and congrats to those who already do!” Musk added in another post.
The 52-year-old billionaire has repeatedly expressed concern about the impact a globally low birth rate could have on civilization. While speaking at The Wall Street Journal's annual CEO Council in December 2021, Musk said that “one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birth rate and the rapidly declining birthrate.”
“And yet, so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. It's completely the opposite,” he said, per USA Today. “Please look at the numbers – if people don't have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words.”
In September, Grimes commented on a photo of Zilis’s children shared on the social media site X by journalist Walter Isaacson – who wrote a soon-to-be-released biography of Musk – asking him to “tell Shivon to unblock me and tell 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,” the singer wrote, via Page Six.
It is unclear if Grimes was referring to her three-year-old X or her younger son in her message. The tweet has since been deleted.
Grimes has not requested child support or custody rights. As of Oct. 3, Musk had not responded to the petition.
Musk was reportedly ensnared in a legal battle with a different ex-girlfriend, actress Amber Heard, over frozen embryos the couple had created prior to their break-up. According to Heard’s friend Jennifer Howell, Musk allegedly wanted the embryos to be destroyed while Heard wanted to use them.
Heard welcomed daughter Oonagh Paige via surrogate in July of 2021. The identity of the child’s father is not publicly known.
