- Tesla CEO Elon Musk and musician Grimes have been dating since 2018, when they made their debut as a couple at the annual Met Gala.
- The couple has weathered ups and downs, like Musk's infamous "funding secured" tweet.
- Now, Grimes hinted that she may be pregnant.
- Here's how their relationship has progressed since 2018.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Elon Musk and the musician Grimes took both the business and music worlds by surprise in 2018 when they revealed they were dating.
Since then, the couple has weathered ups and downs, and possibly even a breakup or two. Now, Grimes — whose real name is Claire Boucher — has hinted that she may be pregnant.
Here's a look at how their relationship has progressed from the beginning.
Sean Wolfe contributed to an earlier version of this story.
Claire Boucher, better known by her stage name, Grimes, is also a producer and outspoken advocate for female artists and their treatment by the press and music industry. She's released multiple albums to critical acclaim, and her breakout album, "Visions," won the Juno Award for Electronic Album of the Year.
Source: Juno Awards
Grimes and Elon Musk met over Twitter. Musk was planning to make a joke about artificial intelligence — specifically, about the Rococo Basilisk character in her "Flesh Without Blood" video — and discovered she had beaten him to the punch.
Source: Twitter
In May, shortly before the Met Gala, Page Six reported that the pair had been "quietly dating" for a few weeks.
Source: Page Six
The report announced that the couple planned to attend the Met Gala together, and that they had been tweeting at each other for a few months.
Source: Page Six
Grimes did end up attending the Met Gala with Musk, which was their first official appearance as a couple. Musk later told the Wall Street Journal that he loves Grimes for her "wild fae artistic creativity and hyper intense work ethic."
Source: The Wall Street Journal
News of their relationship spurred plenty of memes, as many were caught be surprise. Both Grimes and Musk have loyal fanbases who are active online, so there were no shortage of jokes after their relationship was announced.
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/993678173987581953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Elon Musk and Grimes make their debut at the Met Gala pic.twitter.com/plAvt2xvc6
Source: Vice
Someone even made a Google Chrome extension that replaced all instances of "Elon Musk" on a webpage with "Grimes' Boyfriend."
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/994306139444711424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Editorial Note: I have issued new guidance on how to refer to Elon Musk in stories on The Verge pic.twitter.com/N4TAIE3zex
Source: The Verge
Since then, Grimes has taken to Twitter several times to defend Musk and Tesla. In since-deleted tweets, Grimes said Musk has never tried to stop Tesla workers from unionizing and claims she encouraged a union vote among Tesla employees.
Source: Business Insider
Grimes has also attended official events with Musk, like the Hyperloop Pod Competition in July.
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1022095492480741376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
pic.twitter.com/0f3oXdcdsZ
She and Musk, along with his five sons, made an unscheduled appearance at the event.
In July, after it was revealed that Musk has made donations to Republican political committees, Grimes defended his choice, calling it "the price of doing business."
After her tweets began to receive some backlash, she added that "there is no world in which i'm ok w republican donations.."
Source: Jezebel
In August, Musk sent this now infamous tweet: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." He later admitted he picked the $420 share price as a joke to amuse Grimes, according to the SEC.
Musk and Tesla eventually settled with the SEC over the tweet, agreeing to pay $20 million each. Musk also agreed to step down as chairman of Tesla's board and appoint a committee to oversee his communications.
Source: Business Insider
Rapper Azealia Banks claimed to be at Elon Musk's house in Los Angeles during the weekend while he was "scrounging for investors" following his tweet. She compared the situation as something out of the movie "Get Out."
Banks posted on Instagram about the ordeal, saying "I waited around all weekend while grimes coddled her boyfriend." According to the rapper, she and Grimes had planned to collaborate on some upcoming music, so she had flown to where Grimes was staying.
"They bring me out there on the premise that we would hang and make music," Banks said in an Instagram DM with Business Insider. "But his dumb--- kept tweeting and tucked his d--- in between his a-- cheeks once s--- hit the fan."
Musk denied he had ever met or communicated with Banks.
Later that summer, Musk and Grimes unfollowed each other on Instagram, and Musk unfollowed Grimes on Twitter, which caused some to speculate that their relationship was on the rocks.
The couple unfollowed each other on Instagram in August, but neither made any public statements about the status of their relationship.
But by October, it appeared that they had reconnected: they were spotted at a pumpkin patch in Los Angeles with Musk's five sons. Musk also re-followed Grimes on Twitter.
Source: Business Insider
A few months later, in January 2019, Grimes tweeted that she was "randomly" in China at the same time as Musk was opening Tesla's new factory in Shanghai. The two were filmed eating a meal together in Beijing.
Source: Business Insider, Daily Mail
Grimes described Musk as "a super-interesting goddamn person" in a Wall Street Journal profile in March.
Source: Wall Street Journal
In November, Grimes may have even made an appearance at the unveiling of Tesla's highly anticipated Cybertruck: the "cybergirl" hologram who unveiled the truck sported a seemingly identical leg tattoo as the one Grimes has. Many speculated the hologram was actually Grimes, although that hasn't been confirmed.
Source: Business Insider
A few weeks later, the couple was spotted cruising around Los Angeles in the Cybertruck, even stopping to grab dinner at Nobu.
Source: The Cut
When Grimes performed at the 2019 Game Awards in December, Musk was in the audience, even giving her a standing ovation.
Source: Business Insider
The couple stopped by the annual Kardashian-Jenner family Christmas Eve party, posing for a photo with Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Travis Scott, Quavo, and Saweetie.
//instagram.com/p/B6moc53AGgv/embed
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Then, in January, Grimes dropped a potential bombshell: she posted a nude photo to her Instagram and Twitter accounts that shows her pregnant with a fetus Photoshopped on her belly. The post didn't include a caption, but in a comment on the post, Grimes appeared to imply that she is, in fact, pregnant.
The meaning behind the photo and comments is still unclear. Grimes is known for trolling on social media, and given that the singer is planning to release a new album, "Miss Anthropocene," in February, this could be a reference to the new music or an album cover.
Neither Musk nor Grimes has confirmed the pregnancy yet.
Source: Instagram