Elon Musk’s relationship with Ashley St. Clair is back under scrutiny after a new documentary revisits their private arrangement, the birth of their son and a dispute over financial support. St. Clair alleges that an offer involving millions of dollars and substantial monthly payments came with a condition she could not accept: keeping their relationship and child secret.

In Alex Gibney’s documentary Musk, the former conservative influencer describes what she says happened after she rejected the proposed agreement. Her account raises fresh questions about the alleged arrangement and the subsequent changes to financial support, although the claims have not been established as court findings and Musk has presented a different account of the money he provided.

Ashley St. Clair’s $15 Million NDA Allegation Explained

St. Clair’s testimony is one of the central personal stories in Musk, a documentary directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney. The film examines Musk’s business career, political influence, family relationships and personal life, bringing together accounts from people who have known or worked with him.

According to St. Clair, she was offered $15 million and $100,000 per month in child support in exchange for signing an agreement that would keep her relationship with Musk and the existence of their child private.

She says she rejected the proposed arrangement because she could not accept it “in good conscience.”

Her explanation centres on her son, Romulus, and the possibility that secrecy could affect how he understood his family circumstances as he grew older. St. Clair has said she did not want her child to grow up believing he was being hidden.

The alleged agreement therefore involved more than money, according to her account. It also concerned whether their relationship and their son’s existence would remain private.

Neither the precise terms of the alleged agreement nor the claimed financial arrangement have been established as court findings. Musk has not publicly confirmed the specific $15 million offer described by St. Clair.

Revisiting the NDA Allegations
Ashley St. Clair’s account of her relationship with Elon Musk and the alleged secrecy agreement has been discussed before, providing useful background to the claims featured in Gibney’s documentary. For more context on the dispute, read our Ashley St. Clair and Elon Musk NDA documentary report.

Why St. Clair Says Her Monthly Child Support Fell From $100,000 to $20,000

The most striking financial allegation concerns what St. Clair says happened after she refused to sign the agreement.

According to her testimony in Musk, the proposed monthly support was reduced from $100,000 to $40,000 after she rejected the arrangement. She then claims it fell again, to $20,000 per month, after she publicly disclosed the birth of Romulus in February 2025.

The alleged changes represent a difference of $80,000 per month between the original proposed amount and the later figure St. Clair describes.

However, the distinction is important: these figures reflect her account of the arrangement, not a confirmed court-ordered reduction. Reports about the documentary have attributed the claims to St. Clair rather than presenting them as established judicial findings.

Her legal team had previously accused Musk of substantially reducing financial support during their custody dispute. In 2025, St. Clair also publicly complained that the reduction had left her struggling financially.

Musk, meanwhile, has disputed the financial narrative.

In March 2025, he wrote on X:

“I don’t know if the child is mine or not, but am not against finding out. No court order is needed.”

He added:

“Despite not knowing for sure, I have given Ashley $2.5M and am sending her $500k/year.”

These statements document Musk’s publicly stated position at the time. They do not, on their own, establish the complete financial history between the two or confirm the specific arrangement alleged by St. Clair.

How Elon Musk and Ashley St. Clair’s Relationship Began

St. Clair says her relationship with Musk began in 2023 after he started interacting with her on X, formerly known as Twitter.

According to her account, Musk frequently responded to her posts, and their conversations eventually turned towards children and family.

In the documentary, St. Clair recalls one exchange connected to a Mother’s Day post:

“He was responding to my posts frequently. One day, he responded to one of my Mother’s Day posts [and said] that I should have more children,” she says.

She recalls Musk telling her:

“We should have a kid. You should have so many more kids. You should have 10 kids,”

St. Clair says the conversation eventually prompted her to ask what such a relationship would look like.

“Eventually, I was like, ‘Well, what does that look like?’”

Her account places the relationship within Musk’s publicly documented interest in having a large family. The documentary uses her testimony to explore how their relationship developed before the dispute over privacy and financial support.

St. Clair Says Musk’s Behaviour Changed After Their Son Was Born

St. Clair also describes what she considers a significant change in Musk’s behaviour after the birth of their son.

She characterises him as “kind” during their earlier relationship but says that, in her experience, something changed after Romulus arrived.

“It was almost as if he didn’t show a certain side of himself until after I had our baby.”

She had previously discussed the change publicly, saying that “things started getting weird” after she became pregnant.

Her documentary testimony presents Romulus’s birth as a turning point in the relationship. She connects that period with the subsequent disagreement over privacy, financial support and their child’s public identity.

These descriptions reflect St. Clair’s personal account of the relationship and should not be treated as independently established findings about Musk’s behaviour.

When Was Romulus Born, and When Did Musk’s Paternity Dispute Become Public?

Romulus was born in September 2024. However, St. Clair did not publicly disclose the child’s existence until February 2025.

On February 14, 2025, she announced that she had recently welcomed a son with Musk. The news was widely reported at the time as making Romulus Musk’s 13th publicly known child.

The announcement brought the family dispute into public view. St. Clair sought sole custody and asked that Musk be legally recognised as the child’s father.

Musk initially questioned paternity publicly while acknowledging that he had provided financial support. His March 2025 statements offered to establish paternity and described the money he said he had already provided.

By January 2026, however, Musk was referring to Romulus as his son when announcing his intention to seek full custody.

Key dates in the Ashley St. Clair and Elon Musk dispute

Date	Development
2023	St. Clair says her relationship with Musk began after he interacted with her on X.
September 2024	Romulus was born.
February 14, 2025	St. Clair publicly announced that she had welcomed a son with Musk.
March 2025	Musk publicly questioned paternity while describing financial support he said he had provided.
January 2026	Musk announced that he intended to seek full custody of Romulus.
2026	St. Clair’s allegations about the proposed agreement and financial support featured in Gibney’s documentary Musk.

Why Elon Musk Announced Plans to Seek Full Custody in January 2026

The custody dispute developed further in January 2026 after St. Clair expressed remorse for earlier anti-transgender comments and said she had been trying to support members of the transgender community.

She wrote:

“I feel immense guilt for my role,” St. Clair said.

She continued:

“And even more guilt that things I have said in the past may have caused my son’s sister more pain. Idrk how to make amends for many of these things but I have been trying incredibly hard privately to learn + advocate for those within the trans community that I’ve hurt.”

On January 12, 2026, Musk responded:

“I will be filing for full custody today, given her statements implying she might transition a one-year-old boy.”

Reporting at the time noted that St. Clair had not publicly stated that she intended to transition their son. Musk’s comment was an assertion about what he believed her statements implied, rather than evidence that she had announced such a plan.

The custody dispute remained a separate part of the wider conflict over Romulus, alongside the competing accounts of financial support and the alleged secrecy agreement.

St. Clair Makes Further Claims About Musk’s Interactions With Other Women

The documentary also includes St. Clair’s claims about other women who allegedly contacted her regarding their interactions with Musk.

She says some women had reportedly been approached about having children. Discussing one alleged interaction, she says:

“There was a woman in Japan who just wanted, basically, sperm donation that he obliged,” St. Clair says.

She then describes the alleged communications in more colourful terms:

“It’s like a Gatling gun of sperm in his DMs.”

These statements are part of St. Clair’s account in the documentary. They do not independently confirm that Musk has additional children beyond those publicly known.

Musk is publicly known to have 14 children, with his latest publicly announced child being Seldon Lycurgus, whom he shares with Shivon Zilis.

In February 2025, Zilis announced that she and Musk had welcomed Seldon. She already shared three children with Musk.

“Discussed with Elon and, in light of beautiful Arcadia’s birthday, we felt it was better to also just share directly about our wonderful and incredible son Seldon Lycurgus,” Zilis wrote.

Reuters reported that Seldon was Musk’s 14th child and fourth child with Zilis, a Neuralink executive. Musk responded to Zilis’s announcement with a heart emoji.

The family announcement came shortly after St. Clair disclosed Romulus and added another development to the public discussion surrounding Musk’s family.

What Alex Gibney’s Musk Documentary Reveals About the Controversy

The documentary extends beyond Musk’s relationships and family disputes. It examines his rise through Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter/X, his political influence and his involvement with the US government during the period surrounding the Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk did not participate in the film. Gibney instead draws on archival material and a digital recreation of Musk built around his public statements.

The official Venice International Film Festival listing identifies Ashley St. Clair among the documentary’s principal interview subjects, alongside Justine Musk, Kara Swisher, Martin Eberhard, Zoë Schiffer and Geoffrey Hinton.

The film premiered at the 2026 Venice International Film Festival. The official listing gives it a running time of 225 minutes, plus a 10-minute intermission, bringing the total screening time to approximately three hours and 55 minutes.

The documentary opened in US theatres in October 2026 and is listed as playing in theatres by distributor Bleecker Street.

Musk has strongly criticised the project, describing it as a “hit piece that misses” while also directing personal criticism at Gibney.

Gibney has said he and producer Jessie Deeter made repeated efforts to secure Musk’s participation. According to the filmmaker, Deeter already knew Musk from previous films and had his contact information, but the documentary ultimately proceeded without an interview.

The release has also encountered controversy over its promotion and international distribution. TikTok permanently suspended the film’s promotional account shortly before its wider US release. Earlier advertising restrictions involving YouTube and Meta were subsequently reversed, according to reporting.

Universal Pictures has also faced questions about the timing of the film’s overseas rollout. The company has maintained that it remains committed to an international release, while Gibney has publicly discussed concerns about delays.

Another Elon Musk Story
The documentary controversy is only one of the recent stories surrounding Elon Musk and his companies, with Tesla also drawing attention over its unusual plans for a flying Roadster. See our Tesla flying Roadster and SpaceX thruster reveal report for the details.

Conclusion: Ashley St. Clair’s Claims Remain Disputed

Ashley St. Clair’s testimony in Musk has renewed attention on her relationship with Elon Musk, the birth of their son and the financial dispute that followed. She alleges that a proposed $15 million agreement included $100,000 in monthly child support and that the amount was subsequently reduced after she refused to sign and later disclosed Romulus’s existence.

Musk has publicly described financial support he says he provided, initially questioned paternity and later referred to Romulus as his son while announcing plans to seek full custody. The two accounts do not establish the complete financial history between them, and the alleged reductions should not be confused with a confirmed court ruling.

For now, Gibney’s documentary has brought St. Clair’s account to a wider audience, while Musk has criticised the film and declined to participate. The allegations, financial disagreement and custody dispute remain distinct parts of a continuing public controversy.

Source and Research Disclaimer

This article has been prepared using the sources provided below, including the official Venice International Film Festival listing, distributor information and reporting from established news and entertainment publications. Allegations and disputed statements are attributed to the individuals or publications reporting them. The article reflects the information available in those sources and does not imply independent verification beyond the material provided.

Sources

• Variety — Universal Still Plans Overseas Release for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ Documentary Despite Mogul’s Legal Threats
• TheWrap — Universal Remains Committed to Releasing ‘Musk’ Documentary: ‘Plans Have Not Changed’
• Business Insider via DNyuz — Universal says it plans to release the documentary Elon Musk hates in theaters (September 17, 2026)
• Associated Press via News4JAX — Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ has already gotten under Elon Musk’s skin (October 12, 2026)

Featured Image Credit: Trevor Cokley / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons