Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Grimes tells Elon Musk ‘turn off your phone’ after Tesla CEO’s gender pronouns tweet

Artist later deleted her response, while Musk’s was still public at the time of writing

Roisin O'Connor
Saturday 25 July 2020 04:16 EDT
Grimes tells Elon Musk ‘turn off your phone’ after Tesla CEO’s gender pronouns tweet

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Grimes asked her partner Elon Musk to “stop” and to turn off his phone after he caused a backlash over his tweet that claimed: “Pronouns suck.”

Grimes, who has a child with the Tesla CEO, responded in a since-deleted tweet that said: “I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a dall [sic].

“I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart.”

Musk’s original tweet was still public at the time of writing. He had previously tweeted: “Twitter sucks.”

Musk recently caused controversy by announcing his support for West’s presidential campaign, but appeared to backtrack after the rapper’s interview with Forbes.

In the interview, West said he was “pro-life” and claimed vaccinations were “the mark of the beast”.

“We may have more differences of opinion than I anticipated,” Musk tweeted, after the interview was published.

Grimes and Musk announced the birth of their child, X AE A-XII, in May this year.

Before she gave birth, Grimes explained that she did not want to reveal the gender of their child.

“I don’t want to say the gender of the baby… because I feel like their privacy should be protected,” Grimes said, according to People. “I don’t think they can consent to being famous or being in public.

The 31-year-old also said that she doesn’t want to “gender them” in case that is not how the child identifies.

“And I don’t want to gender them in case that’s not how they feel in their life. I don’t know, I just feel like it doesn’t need to be known,” she said.

Grimes’s latest album, Miss Anthropocene, was released in February to positive reviews from critics.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in