Tech mogul billionaire Elon Musk and singer Grimes seemed an unlikely pair when they first got together around 2018.
Since then, they’ve had a child together and unfortunately broken up. Now, it seems 33-year-old Grimes has thrown shade at Musk in the lyrics of her latest song Player of Games.
The track comes two months after their three-year-long relationship came to an end, but where did it all begin?
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April 2018
Canadian singer Grimes and 50-year-old billionaire Musk first came into contact in the most “them” way possible – through making a joke about artificial intelligence.
Rococo basilisk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2018
The words Rococo basilisk are a joke mixing together an art style from 18th century baroque (Rococo) and Roko’s Basilisk – a thought experiment in which AI is capable of torture.
Apparently, when researching his own joke, Musk discovered that Grimes had made the same joke back in 2015 and reached out to her.
A source told Page Six: “Grimes said this was the first time in three years that anyone understood the joke. They were both poking fun at AI.”
7 May 2018
Reports swirl that the couple have begun dating and the rumours appear to be confirmed when they attend the 2018 Met Gala together.
Just before they emerged on the red carpet together, Musk tweets the inside joke that brought them into contact initially.
22 July 2018
Grimes continued to support her boyfriend’s tech endeavours as she came along to the 2018 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. Musk is the CEO and Chief Engineer at SpaceX as well as the CEO of Tesla.
20 August 2018
The pair unfollowed each other on Instagram, leading to speculation that the couple had separated. But, by October, Musk starts following Grimes again.
20 March 2019
Grimes opens up in an interview about what it’s like to date Musk and the level of public scrutiny that now accompanies her actions.
She told The Wall Street Journal: “I just thought I could keep going along in my funny little way, and then you casually respond to someone in a tweet and it’s on Fox News, and you’re like, ‘Ugh,’ you know? That was a very disturbing moment.”
8 January 2020
Grimes takes to Instagram to reveal she’s pregnant with an image appearing to show a baby inside her bump.
5 March 2020
With her baby bump on full display, Grimes appears on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and in the interview confirms that Musk is the baby’s father.
28 March 2020
More speculation over their relationship status occurs as Musk unfollows Grimes on Twitter, but begins following her again a couple of days later.
👀 @elonmusk is no longer following @Grimezsz
— Big Tech Alert (@BigTechAlert) March 28, 2020
👥 @elonmusk is now following @Grimezsz
— Big Tech Alert (@BigTechAlert) March 30, 2020
5 May 2020
Grimes gives birth to the couple’s baby boy, who they name X Æ A-12 Musk.
X Æ A-12 Musk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020
18 May 2020
Musk gets into a Twitter spat with Grimes’ mother, after she calls him out for sharing “bulls**t” online after he told his followers to “take the red pill”.
Take the red pill 🌹
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2020
In response, Grimes’ mother wrote: “If your partner went through a challenging pregnancy and childbirth in the last two weeks…and you were over 16 years old, would you be blaring MRA bullshit on Twitter right now?”
This is Grimes' mom. Thanksgiving is going to be fun. pic.twitter.com/7i3oLnzvrO
— Ryan Mac 🙃 (@RMac18) May 17, 2020
To make matters worse, Musk liked his would-be mother-in-law’s tweet before unliking it.
25 May 2020
The state of California takes issue with the baby name X Æ A-12, so according to Grimes, it’s changed to X Æ A-Xii.
24 July 2020
Musk goes on another Twitter rant, this time criticising the US government’s response to Covid-19 with stimulus packages and also saying “pronouns suck”.
Pronouns suck
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2020
In a now-deleted tweet, Grimes reportedly tried to reason with her partner and step in to stop him tweeting.
She wrote: “I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a [c]all. I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart.”
They then unfollowed each other.
25 July 2020
A joint New York Times feature goes live in which the couple discuss life as parents and Musk admits he hasn’t been doing much since the baby was born.
Musk said: “Well, babies are just eating and pooping machines, you know? Right now, there’s not much I can do.
“Grimes has a much bigger role than me right now. When the kid gets older, there will be more of a role for me.”
24 September 2021
The couple announced that they have “semi-separated”. Musk told Page Six they “are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently, and are on great terms”.
Musk also added: “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 L.A. She’s staying with me now and Baby X is in the adjacent room.”
6 December 2021
Now, just months after their separation was confirmed by Musk, Grimes has released a track that people believe is a dig at Musk.
The song features lyrics that reference being “in love with the greatest gamer” and “he’ll always love the game more than he loves me”.
Pointedly, she also references space travel – something Musk has been heavily involved in through SpaceX.
She sings: “Sail away to the cold expanse of space, even love couldn’t keep you in your place.”
