Grimes is over the moon about her family with Elon Musk.
The "Oblivion" singer shared rare insight into her co-parenting dynamic with the tech mogul, noting that their son X Æ A-12, 3, and daughter Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, 19 months, are following in Elon's footsteps when it comes to interest in life beyond the stars.
"X knows a lot about rockets," Grimes told Wired in an interview published Aug. 8. "It's crazy. He knows more about rockets than me."
In fact, the pair's little boy already as a knack for astronomical engineering. "We had to stop giving him toys, because if they're not anatomically correct, he gets upset," the 35-year-old added. "He's a little engineer, for sure. But his obsession with space is bordering on, 'Is this healthy?'"
What's more, she revealed that the 3-year-old was impacted by the April explosion of Starship, a rocket launched by Elon's spacecraft company SpaceX.
"When X saw Starship blow up, he had, like, a three-day PTSD meltdown," Grimes recalled. "Every hour, he was waking up and going, 'Starship …' and I had to rub his back."
As for her daughter, whose nickname is Y, the "Genesis" artist said she's also showing her own interest in engineering.
"Yeah, she's a little engineer too," the singer said. "She likes industrial shipping. She's very strange."
While acknowledging that being children of the Tesla founder—who is a dad of 10—might come with a "pretty intense" life, Grimes said she's dedicated to honing a creative environment for X and Y.
"Being Elon's kid is not the same as being anyone's kid," she added. "In my house, at least, I want it to be more of a crazy warehouse situation and a cool art space."
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In addition to raising future scientists, Grimes said being a mom has made her "a lot more optimistic."
"I was not super focused before," she explained. "It was just, what sounds cool, what feels cool. Now I feel a social responsibility with my art—to make future-optimistic art. Not a lot of people are doing that. People have a very dire vision of the future, because it's easy and fun to write about cyberpunk dystopias. So seeing my kids makes me pathologically optimistic. It's a life mission."
She also remains on good terms with Elon, who she dated from 2018 to 2021. However, in 2022, Grimes called the exact terms of their relationship "very fluid" in an interview with Vanity Fair.
But one thing is for certain: Grimes is not the same person she was five years ago. "He's challenged me a lot," she noted. "I learned a lot about running my own team and my own life. I'm now way tougher and smarter than I used to be."
However, she did share one thing she taught Musk: "Have more fun."
"I try to soften him up, to build family culture," Grimes said. "And he steals a lot of my memes."
