Elon Musk has at least 13 children.Image: keystone
Right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair has apologized for previous statements about trans people. Elon Musk apparently sees her change of heart as a danger to their son.
01/13/2026, 06:1101/13/2026, 06:11
Anna-Lena Janzen / t-online
Elon Musk is involved in an escalating dispute with right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair – now the Tesla and SpaceX boss has announced that he will apply for sole custody of their son. The background is apparently a public change of heart on the part of St. Clair when dealing with trans people, to which Musk responded with sharp criticism.
“I will be filing for sole custody today,” Musk wrote on Platform However, St. Clair’s statements do not allow any conclusions to be drawn that the child is planning a gender transition.
Ashley St. Clair has a child with Elon Musk. Image: www.imago-images.de
St. Clair, who is said to be 27 years old according to US magazine People, actually publicly apologized last weekend for previous transphobic comments. She wrote on This apparently refers to Vivian Wilson, Musk’s eldest daughter, who came out as trans in 2020.
St. Clair added that she has worked “extraordinarily hard to learn privately and to advocate for people in the trans community that I have hurt.” She rejected criticism that her change of course seemed implausible:
«This answer will also cause right-wing hysteria, but yes, I’m sorry. Tell me how I can help.”
From a scandal book to a change of attitude
St. Clair became known in the USA for her book “Elephants Are Not Birds” – a children’s book that speaks out against the rights of trans people.
According to her own statement, the collaboration with Musk began via the X platform. A short time later she became pregnant. In February 2025, St. Clair made it public that she had a son with Musk. The child was five months old at the time. She explained that she initially kept the boy secret for security reasons, but media reports forced her to publish it.
Musk: Not sure if it’s my child
Musk reacted cautiously at the time: He didn’t know for sure whether he was the father, but he “gave Ashley $2.5 million and send her $500,000 a year,” he wrote on X.
St. Clair disagreed with this account. Musk refused to take a paternity test before the birth, she wrote. The financial support was not a voluntary gift:
“You sent support for your child because you felt it was necessary – until you cut most of it out to exert control and punish me for ‘disobedience’.”
So far, Musk has only seen the son, whom he called “Romulus,” in person three times. He was not involved in his upbringing.
Musk’s daughter: “Irritable, indifferent and narcissistic”
At the end of February 2025, St. Clair filed a lawsuit for sole custody, including a court paternity test. According to the US magazine Forbes, the case is still pending.
Musk is the father of at least 13 known living children, including musician Grimes, author Justine Wilson and Neuralink manager Shivon Zilis. The relationship with his eldest daughter Vivian is considered to be broken. Vivian told NBC News that Musk insulted her during her childhood because of her “femininity and queerness.” Musk himself said she was “dead, killed by the woke mind virus”. Vivian described her father as “hot-tempered, indifferent and narcissistic.”
Musk is considered an advocate of so-called pronatalism – a movement that sees high birth rates as necessary to counteract social decline. Critics point out that in practice this ideal often refers primarily to white, wealthy sections of the population.
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