AUSTIN, Texas — Elon Musk was in court Friday morning amid an ongoing custody dispute with the mother of three of his children, Claire Boucher, the musician known as Grimes.
He arrived at the Travis County family courthouse surrounded by private security guards about 45 minutes before the 9 a.m. hearing.
A small group of the public was allowed inside the courtroom, but both sides asked that the proceeding be closed, citing security concerns and private family information.
The appearance was a rare public sighting of Musk in Austin. The billionaire has a large footprint in Central Texas, including the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin and The Boring Company operations in Bastrop. He has plans to move the headquarters of SpaceX and X to Texas as well.
Background on this case
Musk and Grimes have been battling over the custody of their children in courts in both California and Texas.
On Saturday, July 27, Grimes' mother, Sandy Garossino, took to X – the social media platform owned by Musk – to post pleas to the father of her grandchildren.
“It was nice seeing you on Father’s Day. I hope you got the card that I helped X make. He was so proud of it,” she wrote. “I’m writing here as the only way I have to reach you. As you know, my 93 year old mother is now at end-of-life palliative care.”
“I am alarmed to learn that the children cannot come as you are withholding them and their needed passport documents from Claire,” Garossino said in a follow-up post. "It was even more troubling to see you and X on television at the Olympics in Paris yesterday, after your DC trip earlier in the week."
Musk has 12 children with three different women.