See Elon Musk’s reaction to selfie at China’s state dinner
Elon Musk draws a crowd to take selfies at a banquet in China, and the Tesla CEO’s reaction and photo shoot have become a hot topic.
Elon Musk’s former partner Ashley St. Clair is opening up about the challenges of being a single mother and being called Musk’s “baby mama.”
The former MAGA influencer, who shares a one-year-old son, Romulus (born September 2024) with the Tesla CEO, opened up about her relationship with Musk and being in “Elon’s orbit” in a series of TikTok videos. In addition to Romulus, St. Clare also has a son from a previous relationship.
St. Clair, 27, said she first met Musk while working as a MAGA influencer and was caught up in “Elon’s orbit” when she was 23.
“At that point in my life, I was involved in MAGA and the right wing, and I was already a single mom, so I believed that the possibility of marriage, white picket fences, white dresses were out of the question for me because I was already ‘tainted’ as a single mom,” St. Clair said in a nearly 20-minute video uploaded on May 15.
Mr. Musk encouraged more children
St. Clair said Musk encouraged her to have more children and that “the prospect of being able to be with someone who wanted to have more children” without having to worry about “anything” was very appealing to her.
“Being a single mom is tough,” St. Clair said. “It’s hard to work and I’m worried about whether I’ll be able to pay my children’s school fees next month.”
“Economics is a deciding factor when someone is having children with someone else,” Professor St Clair said, noting that most people with “more than one brain cell” take their economic status into account when planning a family.
“So when Elon was saying, ‘I might as well have kids, my only limited resource is time,’ it’s appealing, of course, to be able to do what I’ve always wanted to be a mother and not have to worry about the (expletive) stuff that’s going on in this economy,” she said. “I don’t think that’s a strange position, and I don’t think it’s strange reasoning.”
The influencer insisted she never set out to “make it big,” referring to expensive designer handbags and saying, “This is my ticket to a Birkin.”
“No, if anything, my children will always be taken care of,” St. Clair said, adding that if she had wanted to “marry for money,” she would have done it a long time ago.
St. Clair says things got “weird” when she became pregnant.
But things reportedly got “strange” between St. Clair and Musk shortly after she became pregnant, with St. Clair claiming she was misled about things including the tech billionaire’s relationships with other women with whom he has fathered children.
“No one will believe me, but I swear he was more normal before I got pregnant,” she said. “His behavior was normal. I know he’s going to get criticized for this, but in private he was funny.”
St. Clair revealed in February 2025, several months after giving birth, that she was the mother of Musk’s child.
“Five months ago, I welcomed a new baby into the world. Elon Musk is the father,” St. Clair wrote in an X post at the time. “I have not previously disclosed this to protect my children’s privacy and safety, but it has recently become clear that the tabloid media intends to do so regardless of the harm it causes.”
Musk did not comment on St. Clair’s claims until at least March 2025, when he responded to a video in which he claimed St. Clair had cut his son’s child support by 60%.
In a post on X on March 31, 2025, Musk said, “I don’t know if the child is mine, but I’m not opposed to finding out. I don’t need a court order. I don’t know for sure, but I gave Ashley $2.5 million and send her $500,000 a year.”
The city of St. Clair later said the billionaire refused a paternity test and withdrew most of his child support payments as punishment for “disobedience.”
Musk seeks custody of Romulus
Musk announced in January that he was seeking custody of Romulus after St. Clair’s social media posts supporting the transgender community. In a since-deleted post about X, the tech CEO said: “I intend to file for full custody of my 1-year-old boy in light of her comments hinting at the possibility of gender reassignment.”
In the video, St. Clair claimed that everything she did was “like being watched by eight lawyers, four different law firms.”
“I’ve been in three different courtrooms,” St. Clair said. “I’m so tired of being portrayed as a belligerent, chaotic person when I’m on three different courts and people are chasing me all the time.”
The conservative influencer added that she is sharing the details now because she wants to move on and not be known as just “Elon Musk’s baby mama.”
Elon Musk is the father of at least 13 children
In addition to Romulus, Musk is the father of at least 12 publicly known and acknowledged children and shares them with multiple women. He has three children with musician Grimes, three children with Neuralink executive Sivon Gillis, and six children with his ex-wife, Canadian author Justin Wilson. Musk and Wilson’s eldest son died in 2002 at 10 weeks old.
Musk’s son XÆA-12 recently traveled to China with Musk, while the SpaceX founder was part of a delegation visiting the country with President Donald Trump.
Contributor: Kate Perez, USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact her at sshafiq@usatodayco.com and follow X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
