Grimes and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, met over Twitter. Musk was planning to make a joke about artificial intelligence and discovered she had beaten him to the punch via the Rococo Basilisk character from her Flesh Without Blood music video.

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News of their relationship spurred an outpouring of memes by their legions of loyal fans online, who were caught by surprise by the unexpected pairing. Someone even made a Google Chrome extension that replaced all instances of “Elon Musk” on a webpage with “Grimes’ Boyfriend”.

Early on in their relationship, Grimes took to Twitter several times to defend Musk and Tesla. In since-deleted tweets, Grimes said Musk has never tried to stop Tesla workers from unionising and claimed she encouraged a union vote among Tesla employees.

That same month, after it was revealed that Musk had made donations to Republican political committees, Grimes defended his choice, calling it “the price of doing business”. After her tweets began to receive some backlash, she added that “there is no world in which I’m OK with Republican donations”.

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That August, Musk sent this now infamous tweet: “Am considering taking Tesla private at US$420. Funding secured.” He later admitted he picked the US$420 share price as a joke to amuse Grimes, according to the SEC. (The number is also slang for smoking marijuana.)

Musk and Tesla eventually settled with the SEC over the tweet, agreeing to pay US$20 million apiece. Musk also agreed to step down as chairman of Tesla’s board and appoint a committee to oversee his communications.

Rapper Azealia Banks – a former friend of Grimes – claimed to be at Musk’s house in Los Angeles during that weekend while he was “scrounging for investors” following his tweet. She compared the situation to something out of the horror movie Get Out.

Later that summer, Musk and Grimes unfollowed each other on Instagram, and Musk unfollowed Grimes on Twitter, which caused some to speculate that their relationship was on the rocks.

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But by October, it appeared that they had reconnected: they were spotted at a pumpkin patch in Los Angeles with Musk’s five sons. Musk also re-followed Grimes on Twitter.

A few months later, in January 2019, Grimes tweeted that she was “randomly” in China at the same time as Musk was opening Tesla’s new factory in Shanghai. The two were filmed eating a meal together in Beijing.

Grimes described Musk as “a super-interesting goddamn person” in a Wall Street Journal profile in March.

In November, Grimes may have even made an appearance at the unveiling of Tesla’s highly anticipated Cybertruck: the “cybergirl” hologram who unveiled the truck sported a seemingly identical leg tattoo as the one Grimes has. Many speculated the hologram was actually Grimes, although it was never confirmed.

A few weeks later, the couple was spotted cruising around Los Angeles in the Cybertruck, stopping to grab dinner at high-end Japanese restaurant Nobu.

When Grimes performed at the 2019 Game Awards in December, Musk was in the audience, even giving her a standing ovation.

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The couple stopped by the annual Kardashian-Jenner family Christmas Eve party that December, posing for a photo with Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and rappers Travis Scott, Quavo and Saweetie.

Grimes later confirmed that she was expecting a baby. She said in February that the internet had already guessed some of the names she was considering for her child.

During a live-stream on Twitch in February to promote her new album, “Miss Anthropocene”, Grimes revealed that the baby’s due date was May 4.

In a March Rolling Stone interview, Grimes confirmed for the first time that she and Musk were having the baby together. Days before Grimes’ due date, Musk acknowledged the pregnancy on Twitter.

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In late 2020, Musk announced that he had moved to Texas over a spat with the state of California over coronavirus lockdowns. The couple was spotted hanging out in Austin, and Grimes also confirmed that she had moved to the Texas capital.

In March, Musk posted a rare family photo of him, Grimes, and baby X with the caption “Starbase, Texas”, a reference to the city he hopes to create around SpaceX’s launch facilities.

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When Musk hosted Saturday Night Live in May, Grimes made a cameo, appearing as Princess Peach in a Super Mario-themed sketch.

But the move to Texas appears to have put a strain on their relationship. Musk told Page Six that he and Grimes are “semi-separated” but still love each other and are on great terms. “It’s mostly that my work at SpaceX and Tesla requires me to be primarily in Texas or travelling overseas and her work is primarily in LA,” he said.

He added that Grimes is “staying with me now and Baby X is in the adjacent room”. On Thursday night, September 23, Grimes posted a video on TikTok of her trying to get X to say “mama” – Musk’s voice is audible in the background.