It is hard to predict the behavior of someone who literally sold her soul as performance art, but this news still came as a shock to me: Grimes and Elon Musk had a baby at the end of 2021. What? Weren’t they recently semi-separated? Apparently, they are now co-parenting a second child named Exa Dark Sideræl— Y for short — who was born via surrogate in December.
According to Grimes, Y was supposed to stay a secret but had an ill-timed tantrum during the singer’s recent interview with Vanity Fair. After the piece came out on Thursday, she tweeted that she did not intend for the reporter to find out about her daughter and asked that people respect her child’s privacy, writing, “I’d love her to be able to live as private of a life as possible.”
Still, Grimes took the opportunity to speak at length about the origin of the name Exa Dark Sideræl, which involves dark matter, the number one quintillion, and elves. Never did I think these two would devise a more confusing name than X Æ A-Xii, but they are full of surprises.
Speaking of: it sounds like Grimes and Musk were briefly, sort of, back together. In the interview, Grimes said that there was “no real word” for her relationship status, but she “would probably refer to him as my boyfriend,” adding that they’re “very fluid.” At the time of the interview, she said they lived in separate houses, were “best friends,” and had “their own thing going on.” However, hours after the article published on Thursday, Grimes announced that she and “E” have since broken up again, “haha.” Still, “he’s my best friend and the love my life,” she wrote.
Speaking about her relationship with Musk, Grimes told Vanity Fair, “I don’t expect other people to understand.” I certainly don’t, but I’m happy for her, semi-separated or not—even though she had to put another esoteric symbol in her daughter’s name instead of naming her Odysseus, which was apparently her first choice.
Luckily, Grimes will likely have plenty more opportunities to cram mythological figures into the names of her offspring. “We’ve always wanted at least three or four” kids, she told the magazine. I think I have an idea for the next one, inspired by one of my old AOL screen names: m3dus@?
