Who Is Grimes, Elon Musk's New Girlfriend?

From Harper's BAZAAR

Some of your favorite couples attended Monday night’s Met Gala, from classy duos like George and Amal Clooney to private pairs like Irina Shayk and Bradley Cooper, but an unexpected twosome made their public debut on the red carpet: Elon Musk and Grimes.

Their romance was under wraps until Page Six broke the news hours before the Met ball. The SpaceX founder and musician hit the red carpet together in matching black and white ensembles fit for the event’s “Heavenly Bodies” theme.

Coincidentally, Amber Heard-who dated Musk before they split in February-was also in attendance, but she arrived with Carolina Herrera designer Wes Gordon. As far as we’ve seen, the two exes didn’t have any awkward run-ins at the gala.

The presence of a former flame was no problem for the new pair, though; Musk, 46, and Grimes, 30, apparently "made out the whole night" at the afterparty, a source told Us Weekly.

Below, we round up what you need to know about their budding relationship.

Grimes and Elon Musk met a month ago online.

It all started when the Tesla CEO wanted to make a joke about Roko’s Basilisk, a thought experiment on artificial intelligence that suggests that “all-powerful robots may one day torture those who didn’t help them come into existence sooner,” Business Insider describes. (You know, typical romantic stuff.)

Musk wanted to joke about the AI with the pun “rococo,” as in the decadent late-baroque artistic style, but Grimes had already beat him to it, Page Six reports. She named a character in her 2015 “Flesh without Blood” music video "Rococo Basilisk," playing on the AI concept.

“"She's doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she's also kind of like Marie Antoinette,” she told Fuse.

“Elon was researching the idea of joking about Rococo Basilisk, and when he saw Grimes had already joked about it, he reached out to her,” a source told Page Six. “Grimes said this was the first time in three years that anyone understood the joke. They were both poking fun at AI.”

Clearly these two were made for each other.

They designed Grimes’ Met Gala dress together.

The pair “designed the musician’s dress together over dinner and commissioned a team to make it,” Us Weekly reports.

Musk’s imprint is obvious in her look-she wore a metal choker with Tesla’s logo on it, Vanity Fair points out.

As for the rest of her look that didn’t involve futuristic car parts, the vibe was gothic (and slightly vampiric) thanks to the embossed white bustier, sheer arms, high-low tulle skirt, and and platform thigh-high boots.

Grimes' real name is Claire Boucher.

Back in 2014, the singer revealed how she chose her stage name in a series of now-deleted tweets. "On Myspace, your genre could be grime and you could have 3 genres so I was plural grime, before knowing what grime was," she confessed. "I was very pleased to discover that I actually loved grime music. Dizzee [Rascal] is one of my all-time favorite musicians, [I] discovered him whilst googling 'grime,' guess I am so named 'cause I like Dizzee, Wiley, etc."

Boucher revealed she was too embarrassed to tell the true story behind her name to journalists in interviews, so she ended up lying and saying she named herself after the artist Ken Grimes or The Simpsons' Frank Grimes.

She's a fashion favorite.

The multi-hyphenate artist has appeared in Harper's BAZAAR's September 2017 issue and in fashion campaigns for Stella McCartney and Rodarte.

She's Canadian.

Boucher grew up in Vancouver, but moved to Montreal in 2006 to study neuroscience and philosophy at McGill University, according to The Globe and Mail. In 2014, she moved to Los Angeles, The Fader reports.

Musk is a fan of her music.

Grimes has four studio albums out: Geidi Primes (2010), Halfaxa (2010), Visions (2012), and Art Angels (2015). Her latter two records have especially received critical praise and were nominated for the Polaris Prize, Canada's annual prestigious music award. (Winners in recent years include Kaytranada and Arcade Fire.)

At the end of April, while announcing his love for Post Malone, Musk mentioned he was listening to one of Grimes' playlists. She flirtatiously tweeted back. When a fan told Musk to "just ask her out already," he responded with a winky face.

She's also an artist, director, and producer.

Grimes is very hands-on with her musical projects. She directs her own visuals. "It's good to make your own music videos because you can tightly control everything," she told ELLE.com in 2016.

She also prides herself in producing her own music. "I don't want to be just the face of this thing I built, I want to be the person who built it," she told The Fader in 2015.

To top it off, the musician also makes use of her artistic talents by designing her own cover art, like she did for Art Angels. Grimes also has a whole Instagram account (@GrimesArtOfficial) dedicated to showcasing fan art and some of her original creations.

She has a couple of collaborations with with Janelle Monáe.

The two boundary-pushing musicians appear to be close after appearing on each other's songs. First, Grimes recruited Monáe for her Art Angels track, "Venus Fly," which boasts a fantastical music video.

Then Monáe featured her on her song, "Pynk," which released just last month.

The two also hung out at Coachella in 2016 after Grimes brought out Janelle for a surprise appearance during her set.

She previously dated fellow musician James Brooks.

The two dated for a few years, but it's unclear when the former couple parted ways. Brooks' music projects include Elite Gymnastics and Default Genders. They struck up a romance after arguing over Britney Spears' "...One More Time," according to The New Yorker. "He’s the only dude I’ve ever dated who won’t give me shit for beating him at things," she told the paper in 2015.

Before dating Amber Heard, Musk was previously married to Justine Wilson from 2000 to 2008, then married to Westworld actress Talulah Riley twice: from 2010 to 2012, and 2013 to 2016.

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