Elon Musk Faces Suits From Ashley St. Clair Over Paternity and Custody of Their Alleged Child
Elon Musk — who as head of President Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency spent Saturday threatening all federal employees with being fired if they ignore his email — is facing legal claims in New York from Ashley St. Clair. The right-wing influencer filed two petitions with New York Supreme Court on Friday over the paternity and custody of their alleged child. Musk has not publicly acknowledged St. Clair’s claim that he is the father of the child.
On Valentine’s Day, St. Clair announced on the Musk-owned X that she had given birth to a child, alleging Musk was the father and initially planned not to go public about it to protect the child, but believed the news would soon come out via tabloids. “I ask that the media honor our child’s privacy, and refrain from invasive reporting,” she wrote. As the news went viral, she also claimed that Musk, the world’s richest man, was ignoring her messages about their alleged child.
In the petitions filed on Friday, which were obtained by Rolling Stone, she asks the court to legally establish Musk, the billionaire DOGE chief, as the father of the baby, identified as R.S.C. in the documents and born to St. Clair in September 2024, and to obtain sole custody of the child. The news was first reported by User Mag.
According to the paternity petition, St. Clair claims they began their romantic relationship around May 2023 and had sexual intercourse “in various locations” in early January 2024, “during which time our child was conceived.” According to the document, Musk has “acknowledged parentage of the child in various written correspondences. The petition cites purported texts between Musk and St. Clair along with a photo of Musk holding their alleged child. One alleged text exchange from Musk to St. Clair from November 2024 reads: “I want to knock you up again” and another cited in the petition from February of 2025 reads, “well, we do have a legion of kids to make.”
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St. Clair requests the court “issue a summons, warrant or order requiring [Musk] to show cause why the Court should not enter a declaration of paternity, an order of support and such other and further relief as may be appropriate under the circumstances.”
In the second petition, St. Clair seeks full custody of the child, claiming by his choice, Musk “was not present for the birth of our child, has had no more than three in-person visits with our child, and has not expressed an interest in having custody of our child.” St. Clair asks the court to award “sole legal and physical custody of the child” as well as “further relief as the Court may determine.”
In an attorney affirmation, St. Clair’s attorneys wrote, “This firm has been dealing with [Musk]’s lawyer and representative, Alyssa Rower from Rower, LLC, in an attempt to resolve this matter privately. The law firm has offices in Manhattan and Westchester, New York. However, his representatives have been non-responsive in the past to resolve the outstanding issues and [Musk] has indicated that he no longer wishes to resolve issues of custody and support amicably.”
Rower, Musk’s attorney, did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
This isn’t the only instance where reaching Musk has proved difficult when it comes to children and dealing with custody claims. Grimes and Musk were embroiled in a contentious battle over custody of their three children for two years; it was resolved in August 2024 and the details were not made public.
Earlier this week, Grimes pleaded with Musk to “Plz respond about our child’s medical crisis” via the Musk-owned X platform. “I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention,” Grimes continued. “If you don’t want to talk to me can you please designate or hire someone who can so that we can move forward on solving this. This is urgent, Elon.” Grimes’ post later appeared to be “unavailable” to read. It’s unclear which child was having health issues.
Around the same time, Musk showed up onstage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conference swinging around a chainsaw he had been gifted, calling it “the chainsaw for bureaucracy.” He continued: “I am become meme…. I was living the meme. It’s just — I was living the dream, and I was living the meme, and that’s pretty much what’s happening.”