THE on-and-off romance between Elon Musk and Grimes has had some bizarre twists – including a secret surrogate baby and twins born to another woman at the same time.
Now a BBC documentary has revealed the Tesla boss thinks she’s a figment of his own imagination – and she agrees.
On The Elon Musk Show, which continues on BBC2 on Wednesday, Vanity Fair reporter Devin Gordon says the Canadian singer revealed the goofy theory in a recent interview.
“She told me several times that Musk has this theory about her that she’s not real, that she’s a simulation that was created by him and exists in his cerebral cortex as some sort of perfect mate. for him,” he said.
“Which sounds a little crazy and maybe even a little scary, except she’s okay with it. She said she felt like this simulation that was perfectly created for him.
The three-part documentary, which debuted this week, interviews former colleagues and family members, including mum Maye – who recounts her “violent” childhood.
First wife Justine reveals that she found out her husband was going through a divorce from a message left with their marriage counselor.
And British star Talulah Riley – who married the billionaire twice – reveals intimate details about their relationship, including how he discussed it by inviting her to watch rocket videos, as well as the CEO’s softer side who works hard.
“He has a real innocence in him. What I mean by that is that he feels with incredible purity whatever emotion he is feeling in that moment,” she says.
“He feels things incredibly deeply. I heard he was cold and emotionless. That couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s the most emotional person I know.
Barefoot in the snow to prove love
Talulah, then 22, met Musk at London’s Whiskey Mist in 2008, just weeks after he split from his first wife, Justine Wilson.
After a whirlwind romance of just 10 days, he told her, “I don’t want you to come home. I want to marry you,” and she moved into her Los Angeles apartment, becoming an instant stepmom to her five grandchildren.
At the time, the businessman was on the verge of bankruptcy, having invested millions in Tesla – which was struggling to produce a mass-produced electric car – and rocket company SpaceX.
Court documents revealed he was using emergency loans from friends to pay for divorce costs and living expenses.
He worked 20 hour days and suffered from night terrors, and in the second episode of the documentary, Talulah reveals his fears for his health.
“It was really awful…He was under incredible stress,” she says. “I was afraid he would have a heart attack. I kept thinking God, I just gotta keep this guy alive.
She also reveals a touching story that reveals the more romantic side of the workaholic tech geek.
“It was one of the bad Christmases. He forgot to give me a Christmas present,” she said. “We were in Boulder, Colorado, so there is a lot of snow.
“We were in bed and he said, ‘It’s not that I don’t love you, I really really love you, it’s just that my brain is exploding.
“He got up in the middle of the night and disappeared. He came back two hours later. He had gone out in a T-shirt and shorts, barefoot, and had dug in the snow and picked flowers.
“He had been all over Boulder, and he came back with this little bouquet of picked flowers” and said “I just wanted to show you how much I love you.”
Hovercraft and eels
Talulah says he was supportive of her career and when she had to return to the UK to film St Trinian’s 2, he sent a truckload of flowers to the set, found the names of every woman on set and the treated. with flowers, chocolates and champagne.
“I remember the Prime Minister [of St Trinians] he came and he held my umbrella for me while I was signing, and nobody knew who Elon was,” she recalled.
“He was very nice and sweet and very supportive.”
The couple married in 2010, at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland, and say Musk was happy to marry in the UK.
“I said if there was anything you wanted at the wedding and he said, ‘Yeah, I want a hovercraft and eels. So we had a hovercraft and eels,” she says.
“We went to Paris for our honeymoon for a few days – he took a few dates while we were there – but it was really nice.”
The couple divorced two years later before remarrying in 2013. A year later, Musk filed for divorce again, before withdrawing the petition. The couple finally separated in 2016.
In the documentary, Talulah explains the reason for the marriage separation, reunion and eventual separation.
“I found LA really tough from the moment I landed there,” she says. “It was an incredible culture shock. I just wanted to come home and I kept trying to come home, but I also really love Elon, so it took us several years to figure that out.
The pair remain close and she says that although she didn’t understand his vision, she believes he could one day achieve his ultimate dream – to build a human colony on Mars.
“He could kind of see how the world was going in a way that I just didn’t understand, and I love having that perspective and I’m grateful for every part of that.
“I hope he takes humanity to Mars because I think that’s his reason for being more than all that.”
AI theory link
After a brief relationship with Amber Heard, Elon Musk first met Grimes in early 2018 via Twitter – and bonded over a high-tech gag.
“They both made a similar corny joke about a scary future AI theory called Roko’s Basilisk, which I don’t even really understand,” Devin says. “And his interests are all the same as him and his music is very tech-oriented.”
On the rebound of a brief idyll with Amber Heard, Musk fell in love with the Canadian singer, who is 17 years younger.
In May 2020, they welcomed their first son but immediately caused controversy with the choice of name – X Æ A-12 – and were forced to change it to X AE A-XII by California authorities because it contained symbols not included in the alphabet.
A year later, Musk said the couple had “semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on good terms.”
Despite the separation, the couple used a surrogate to give birth to their baby girl, Exa Dark Siderael – also known as Y – who was born in December.
They kept her birth a secret, only admitting she existed when a reporter heard a baby crying upstairs at their home in March.
When pressed, she admitted she was having a daughter and explained that serious complications in her first pregnancy meant they didn’t want to risk a second.
Court documents recently released by Insider also revealed that he had twins with colleague Shivon Zilis, who were born a month before Y.
Explaining their on-off relationship, Grimes added: “There’s no real word for it.
“I would probably call him my boyfriend, but we’re very fluid. We live in separate houses. We are best friends. We see each other all the time… We just have our own thing going on, and I don’t expect the others to understand it.
Episode 2 of The Elon Musk Show airs Wednesday on BBC2