Elon Musk is using ex-girlfriend Grimes’ tweets to prove to custody courts that she primarily lived in Texas despite her claims that she lived in California. This distinction is important, because Texas has a cap on maximum child support payments where California has no maximum cap.
No cap, this billionaire with a “B” is fighting to minimize child support payments to the mother of three of his children, and is thus fighting for his kids to have less access to his grossly abundant financial resources, dependent on the outcome of the custody battle.
Musk and Grimes were dating on-and-off from 2018 until earlier this year, and musical artist Grimes, whose legal name is Claire Boucher, is the mother of three of Musk’s 10 children. Musk made the first move when he filed a lawsuit in Texas against Grimes on September 7 and initiated the custody battle, claiming he wanted to establish a parent-child relationship with his kids after Grimes moved to California with their two youngest children. According to Business Insider, Grimes then filed a lawsuit against Musk in California where she requested physical custody of their children and included an order to prevent either parent from moving the children out of California. Business Insider reports,
In previous filings, Musk has accused Grimes of moving to California in order to avoid Texas courts. The Tesla CEO has good reason to want the case to play out in Texas, which caps monthly child-support payments at just $2,760 per month for three children. He would likely face much heftier child support payments in California, which has no cap.
This is shaping up to be quite a messy custody battle, as the two celebrity parents are often traveling around the globe, causing confusion when determining the family’s legal state of residence. To determine which court has jurisdiction over the case, judges normally look to where the children lived the longest over the past six months, and if that is inconclusive then judges usually lean toward the state where the children have roots via primary care doctors and school attendance. As Business Insider states,
In an amended petition filed Monday, the X owner said Grimes posted on the site on multiple occasions saying that she lives in Texas. Musk cites seven posts from social media that Grimes wrote between February 2021 and October 2023 in the court document.
The “tweets reflected her continued residence,” Musk’s filing reads. He alleges Grimes and the kids lived with him in a shared Texas home as recently as July of 2023.
In her California suit, however, Grimes claimed she moved with the children to California on December 31, 2022. But Musk said her posts on X indicate otherwise.
Grimes’ tweets are becoming incriminating, as they seem to indicate that she was living in Texas for longer than she claimed while under oath in California. Musk claims her tweets reflected her continued residence in Texas, and a California family law attorney said the tweets in question are extremely damaging to her credibility.
Though it seems that Grimes took the two one-year-olds with her to live in California against Musk’s wishes, Musk has kept their eldest son with him in Texas against Grimes’ wishes. This is shaping up to be a case of more money more problems, but given that the future of three children are dependent on the outcome of the case and Musk’s herculean wealth continues to grow each day, I wish the two adults would reach an amicable agreement and focus on the wellbeing of their kids instead of focusing on petty games.