Elon Musk‘s ex Ashley St. Clair alleges in a new documentary that the Tesla mogul cut monthly child support payments for their son by a reported $80,000 in retaliation for her speaking out publicly.
Former conservative influencer St. Clair, 28, opens up about having son Romulus, now 2, with Musk, 55, in acclaimed documentarian Alex Gibney‘s new film Musk, which explores the tech executive’s growing influence on right-wing politics.
St. Clair told Gibney that Musk offered her a one-time payment of $15 million and $100,000 a month provided she signed an NDA that allegedly restricted what she could say about him or their son in public, per Entertainment Weekly.
When St. Clair refused to be silenced, Musk allegedly dropped the child support payments to $40,000 per month, before cutting that sum further to $20,000 in February 2025 when she publicly announced she’d given birth to his son Romulus.
Us has reached out to Musk and St. Clair for comment.
In Gibney’s film, St. Clair alleged that Musk was “kind” to her until their son was born in September 2024.
“It was almost as if he didn’t show a certain side of himself until after I had our baby,” she argued.
The influencer also claims in the film that she heard from other women across the world who’d allegedly been approached by Musk to have children with him.
“There was a woman in Japan who just wanted, basically, sperm donation that he had obliged,” St. Clair alleged. “It’s like a Gatling gun of sperm in his DMs.”
St. Clair sued Musk for full custody of Romulus in February 2025, igniting a legal battle that continues to this day. She is also engaged in legal action against Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, accusing its executives of negligence after users of X’s Grok AI chatbot generated explicit fake images of her likeness.
Her decision to go public in February 2025 about her relationship with Musk was allegedly motivated by a threat from a tabloid to reveal her son’s birth.
“Five months ago, I welcomed a new baby into the world. Elon Musk is the father,” she wrote via X at the time. “I have not previously disclosed this to protect our child’s privacy and safety, but in recent days it has become clear that tabloid media intends to do so, regardless of the harm it will cause.”
She added, “I intend to allow our child to grow in a normal and safe environment. For that reason, I ask that the media honor our child’s privacy, and refrain from invasive reporting.”
Musk confirmed that he’d recently welcomed his 14th child — whose mother is Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis — just two weeks later. (Musk shares 14 children with four different women.)
St. Clair continued to clash with Musk when she recently revealed on “The Don Lemon Show” earlier this year that she rejected an offer from him and his financial adviser Jared Birchall that would have netted her “15 million and $100,000 per month for 20 years” provided she signed an NDA restricting what she could say about the Tesla boss.
“I was never to disparage Elon. I was never to speak about anything, including his employees, his affiliates, nothing,” she claimed. “I replied to Jared and said, ‘I cannot in good conscience sign this.’”
Last month, St. Clair touched on why she decided to share her story in Gibney’s documentary even if it meant risking retaliation from Musk.
“Because on my end, I was offered the opportunity not to speak for $40 million,” St. Clair told reporters at the Venice Film Festival press conference. “So when you’re offered something like that, it really causes a debate in your head about what your speech means and how valuable that is, and why do they want to offer me this amount of money to not speak?”
St. Clair quipped that Musk’s “most complicated relationship is with the truth.”
“So I think, most importantly, I want to set the example for my kids that you should never take being materially comfortable over speaking the truth,” she said.
Musk is now playing in theaters.
