Serving child custody papers to Elon Musk appears to be a full-time job.
The tech billionaire reportedly evaded numerous process servers in at least a dozen locations after Grimes sued Musk in late September for physical custody of their three children, according to court documents obtained Friday by Insider.
Proof-of-service papers filed last week showed Grimes hired four people who, between Oct. 13 and Oct. 20, tried serving Musk at the X headquarters in San Francisco, the SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, and his Tesla gigafactory in Austin.
They also tried several addresses tied to Musk — including a local horse farm.
The obtained filing alleged one process server encountered a woman at the farm who, when asked if Musk was present at the time, curtly replied: “Nope, not here.” Another process server even tracked Musk’s private jets in an unsuccessful attempt to find him.
Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, reportedly filed a “petition to establish parental relationship” on Sept. 29. These are often required when two parents are unmarried, as is the case here, and one is seeking child support or custody.
Musk reportedly started the legal battle with a similar lawsuit on Sept. 7. In October, the singer claimed in a Texas court that Musk had custody of their three-year-old son X Æ A-Xii over her “objection.”
Two of the process servers hired in October reportedly tried to track Musk down at the home of Shivon Zilis, a director at his Neuralink startup and the mother of two of his kids. Someone who purported not to know Musk met them at the door.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images
Process servers were told to vacate the Tesla factory and X offices by security guards and a police officer. However, Grimes argued in her filing that Musk was served as her complaint was left with security guards.
Musk’s attorneys claimed Grimes should have continued trying to properly serve him, while her lawyers argued he was indeed served on Oct. 20 via substitute service — through Musk’s employees — and even mailed him the papers on that date.
Musk and Grimes started dating in 2018 and share, in addition to their three-year-old, a nearly two-year-old daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl and a 2-month-old son named Techno Mechanicus. The couple broke up in 2021.
Biographer Walter Isaacson notably posted about his book on Musk in September on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter (which Musk acquired for $44 billion in 2022), only for Grimes to reply: “Tell Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer.”
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