The Shady Way Elon Musk Advised Baby Mama Grimes Against Plastic Surgery

Elon Musk's tumultuous and complicated relationship with his ex-girlfriend, singer Grimes, often plays out in the public eye — specifically on Musk's social network platform, X (formerly Twitter). The pair have exchanged both supportive messages and shady barbs throughout the years, even as they've welcomed three children together during their on-again, off-again romance. All the while, Musk hasn't shied away from using the public nature of the platform to message Grimes and subtly influence her decisions.

This was exactly the case back in August 2022, when Musk took to Twitter (before he officially owned it and changed it to X) to not-so-subtly convince the "Oblivion" singer not to go under the knife for a fairytale cosmetic surgery. Specifically, Grimes had been speaking to her followers about possible body modifications and asked, "Has anyone done elf ear mods with a good outcome? I'm scared about ear cartilage having a hard time healing. Especially as a musician this surgery seems risky but I've wanted it my whole life."

Musk's brief response to Grimes' post — which came just months after they secretly welcomed their third child, Techno "Tau" Mechanicus —was concise and almost pedantically simple: "The downside of elf ear surgery probably outweighs the upside." Musk's response garnered more than three times as many likes as Grimes' original post and seemed to convince the singer. She later said it was probably a better job for genetic modification, and she lamented being "born just a few generations too early."

Grimes and Elon Musk began dating in 2018 and made their public debut that year at the Met Gala in New York City. They were together for four years before splitting in 2022. Following the pair's tragic and divisive custody battle, they've had very different viewpoints when it comes to raising their kids. Grimes has been an advocate for keeping them out of the spotlight, while Musk has taken the opposite position.

When Musk took their eldest son to President Donald Trump's press conference in February, Grimes took to social media to express her frustration. "He should not be in public like this. I did not see this ... But I'm glad he was polite. Sigh," Grimes wrote, clearly irritated at how her son was being paraded in public without her knowledge. Later that month, Grimes shared even more concerning posts when she took to X to address Musk directly about their child's medical emergency.

"Plz respond about our child's medical crisis," Grimes wrote to Musk in a series of since-deleted posts in late February. "I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention," she wrote (via People). Grimes did not elaborate on what the emergency was but said that Musk had not responded to countless texts and calls and said their child could potentially "suffer life long impairment if he doesn't respond asap," so she felt public pressure might be the only way to solve the issue. It's unclear if her pleas were met with an eventual response. However, it is clear these two don't have a problem using social media to air their personal disagreements.