Grimes Says She ‘Didn’t Want Any’ of Her New Album to Be About Elon Musk

Ilana Kaplan, Bailey RichardsSun, October 11, 2026 at 10:18 PM UTC

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Grimes on ‘Swiftologist’; Elon MuskCredit: Swiftologist/youtube; Kevin Dietsch/GettyThe pop musician did tease a second, “100% personal” part of the upcoming project on the Oct. 11 episode of the ‘Swiftologist’ podcast -

Grimes says she did not “want” her forthcoming album, Psy Opera, to be about her high-profile ex, Elon Musk

“I really didn’t want to write... I just didn’t want any of this to be about Elon,” she said on the Swiftologist podcast

Grimes and Musk, who share three children, initially met in 2018 and ended their relationship in 2022

Grimes says she “didn’t want any of” her forthcoming album to be about her high-profile ex, Elon Musk.

Appearing on the Oct. 11 episode of the Swiftologist podcast, the Canadian electro-pop musician (real name Claire Boucher) largely avoided any mention of her past relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, with whom she shares three children. She did reveal, however, that she “didn’t want any of” her forthcoming album to be about Musk, 55.

“I really didn’t want to write... I just didn’t want any of this to be about Elon,” Grimes, 38, told Swiftologist’s Zachary Hourihane of her upcoming AI-inspired album, Psy Opera, which she said on the podcast she plans to release in two parts.

Neither part has an official release date yet, and the second portion, which the singer teased is more personal, is still in the “fixing” stages, Grimes said.

“I sort of wish I mixed it up with the second album more, ‘cause the second album is, like, 100% personal, really,” Grimes said on Swiftologist.

Asked if she feels her personal life “is too high-stakes to really be confessional about,” Grimes said, “Not at all. I just... they couldn’t come first.”

“And I felt like this stuff is very relevant,” she said, referring to the themes of AI and technology in the forthcoming project. “I sort of wish I had a bit more of the emotions on this side and a bit more computer on the other side. That’s my only regret about this album.”

Explaining what Psy Opera — at least the first, less personal part — is about, Grimes said on the podcast, “It’s almost more of a... like, the AI is a mirror and like looking inward from what it’s showing us about ourselves.” It also deals with Grimes’ “journey” toward nihilism, as well as motherhood, the musician said.

“The second disc comes out like right after the first disc so it won’t be too long where people don’t have both, but I wanted to bring everyone through my journey of getting so kind of dark and nihilistic and also aggro,” Grimes explained.

Grimes in 2018Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG18/Getty

“I feel like, you know, I was going through the trial like in my personal life and I was also kind of going through a trial in public and I felt like I was in this Kafka-esque situation for like years,” she continued. “Like, for literal years, I just woke up in abject terror every morning, and it could be from anything, and it’s like, I’m guilty of some new thing, outside and inside, at every point in my life, every day, for years.”

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“And it was really, really scary and trying to kind of protect my kids from even just like what I was going through. I just started realizing, ‘Wow, like, motherhood can be this very violent thing,’ ” Grimes explained, adding that additionally, she “just started feeling so angry about also, like, the world my kids were coming into.”

Grimes and Musk were first linked in May 2018 when they made their public debut at the Met Gala.

For the cover story for Vanity Fair’s April 2022 issue, the “Oblivion” musician called her relationship with the billionaire entrepreneur “very fluid.”

Musk had previously revealed that he and Grimes broke up during a September 2021 interview with Page Six. “We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms,” Musk told the outlet at the time.

Elon Musk and Grimes at the 2018 Met Gala in New York CityCredit: Kevin Mazur/MG18/Getty

When the 2022 Vanity Fair story was released, Grimes tweeted that she and Musk had gone their separate ways since the interview.

“Me and E have broken up again since the writing of this article haha, but he’s my best friend and the love of my life, and my life and art are forever dedicated to The Mission now, I think Devin wrote that part of the story rly well. Sique - peace out,” she wrote at the time.

Musk and Grimes welcomed their first child, son X Æ A-Xii, in May 2020 and quietly had two more children —daughter Exa Dark Sideræl via surrogate in December 2021, and son Techno Mechanicus in June 2022.

Grimes in March 2019; Elon Musk in 2025Credit: Jesse Grant/Getty; Kevin Dietsch/Getty

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Musk has a total of 14 children with four different women. He shares six kids with his ex-wife Justine Wilson, four with an executive at one of his companies, Shivon Zilis, and one with author Ashley St. Clair.

St. Clair, 28, told The New York Times in May 2026 that Musk revealed to her that he also fathered a child with a Japanese pop star, though this claim has not been confirmed.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”