- Musician Grimes defended her boyfriend, tech billionaire Elon Musk, in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
- Grimes said that Musk, whose net worth hovers around $40 billion, spends all his money and energy on making the world a better place.
- "I admire it a lot. I think it's great. To me, it does not contradict my beliefs," Grimes said.
- She also noted that she doesn't accept any of Musk's money for her work, and that "Grimes is funded by Grimes."
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Musician Grimes and tech billionaire Elon Musk have been dating since 2018, and their relationship has faced scrutiny from all sides.
But one of the more vocal corners of the internet is a faction of Grimes fans that feels betrayed by the indie musician dating a tech billionaire whose net worth hovers around $40 billion.
Grimes addressed that criticism, particularly when it comes to income inequality, in a new interview with Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt that touches on everything from the baby she's expecting with Musk to her political views.
Grimes - whose real name is Claire Boucher but who now goes by the initial c - defended Musk's accumulation of wealth, arguing that he reinvests the money into making the world a better place.
"If someone's just gonna take everything and just put it into R&D to make the world better, and just get up at the f------ crack of dawn every day and go to bed really late every night, doesn't take vacations and just actually puts every single ounce of his energy in everything he cares about and all his money into making the world better? Like, I can make an exception," Grimes told Rolling Stone. "I admire it a lot. I think it's great. To me, it does not contradict my beliefs."
Musk is famous for his workaholic tendencies, famously eschewing vacations and sleeping on the floor of his Tesla factory. He's the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, and the founder of Neuralink and The Boring Company.
While Musk doesn't appear to spend as lavishly as other billionaire CEOs, he isn't particularly frugal, either. At one point, Musk owned $70 million in residential real estate in the Los Angeles area, and he's also amassed a car collection. Musk has signed the Giving Pledge, vowing to donate the majority of his wealth in his lifetime or in his will.
Still, Grimes told Rolling Stone that it's not like Musk is "buying yachts," and that his billions aren't spent on her career either - though she did note that she would like him to spend money on child care.
"Grimes is funded by Grimes," she said. "I don't want to divert funds from, like, Tesla to my stupid art project. I can't say the things I say and believe what I believe and then take money from my boyfriend."
This isn't the first time Grimes has defended Musk. Early on in their relationship, Grimes wrote on Twitter that Musk had never prevented Tesla employees from unionizing, calling accusations that Tesla had blocked unionization efforts "fake news" and saying that she had tried to encourage a union vote at the company.
Grimes and Musk have been dating since 2018 - they publicly debuted their relationship at the Met Gala in May of that year. The couple has weathered ups and downs, like Musk's infamous "funding secured" tweet, and may have broken up briefly in the summer of 2018.
Grimes revealed she was pregnant in early January in a cryptic social media post and confirmed to Rolling Stone that Musk is the father. Musk, who has five sons from his first marriage, still has not commented on Grimes' pregnancy.
