Ashley St. Clair is making headlines with surprising honesty about her finances. She’s in the middle of a custody battle with Elon Musk. St. Clair revealed she turned to podcasting to make money.
“I’m going to be evicted,” St. Clair stated. This news came during the first episode of her new podcast, “Bad Advice,” which launched on Monday, August 18.
She pointed to her tough financial spot. Then she thanked the episode’s sponsor. “Polymarket offered me $10,000 to read an ad,” St. Clair explained. “So, because of that, Polymarket made the roof over my head possible. God bless Polymarket.”
St. Clair also said she started this project after a tough year. She seemed to hint at her drama with Musk, who is 54. “Well, after a year of unplanned professional suicide,” she joked, “many questionable life decisions, and a gap on my LinkedIn profile that can’t be legally explained, I decided to start a podcast.”
St. Clair noted that no one “asked” her to start a podcast. Still, she felt it was her only real choice. She also joked about not being qualified to discuss serious topics on a podcast. She stated, “In fact, I think I have the worst ideas.” Then she warned listeners, “So consider everything that comes out of my mouth a warning.”
St. Clair made headlines in February. That’s when she announced Musk was supposedly the father of her baby, Romulus. She claimed her son was the Tesla founder’s 13th child. (Later that same month, tech executive Shivon Zilis announced Musk’s 14th child.)
“Five months ago, I welcomed a new baby to the world. Elon Musk is the father,” St. Clair wrote on X. “I hadn’t revealed it before to protect our child’s privacy and safety. But in recent days, it became clear that tabloid media intended to do so, no matter the harm it might cause.” She added, “I intend to let our son grow up in a normal and safe environment. Therefore, I ask the media to respect our son’s privacy. They should also refrain from invasive reporting.”
A prominent entertainment news outlet, Us Weekly, reached out to Musk’s representatives at that time. They sought comments about St. Clair’s claims.
Days later, St. Clair shared a statement through her representative. It said she and Musk were working towards a shared parenting agreement. Her representative, Brian Glicklich, wrote in a statement shared on X: “Ashley and Elon have been working privately for some time to create an agreement about raising their child.” He added, “It’s disappointing that a tabloid reporter, who on several occasions approached Ashley and her family, prevented that process from being completed confidentially.”
The statement continued, “We are waiting for Elon to publicly acknowledge his parental role with Ashley. This will end baseless speculation. Ashley trusts that Elon intends to finalize their agreement quickly, in the best interest of the well-being and safety of the child they share.”
Later that same month, St. Clair, who authored the children’s book ‘Elephants Are Not Birds,’ filed a petition in New York Supreme Court. She sought sole custody of her alleged son with Musk, according to SCOOP. St. Clair claimed in court documents that Musk supposedly “recognized the child’s paternity in several written communications.” However, she stated the tech mogul had only seen the child three times. Reports say she also filed a paternity request at the same time.
In March, Musk commented on St. Clair’s legal battle against him. He did not confirm if he was the child’s biological father. “I don’t know if the child is mine or not, but I’m not opposed to finding out. No court order is needed,” he wrote on X. Musk then claimed, “Despite not being sure, I have given Ashley $2.5 million and send her $500,000 a year.”
St. Clair responded to Musk’s statement with her own message on X that March. “Elon, we asked you to confirm paternity through a test even before our son was born (whom you named). You refused,” she claimed then. “And you weren’t sending money to me. You were sending support for your son, which you thought was necessary… until you withdrew much of it to maintain control and punish me for ‘disobedience.’ But in reality, you’re just punishing your son.”
Amid their custody battle, The Wall Street Journal reported another detail. It said Musk supposedly offered St. Clair a one-time payment of $15 million. He also allegedly offered $100,000 per month. This was to keep their son’s existence a secret. Reports say she rejected the offer. St. Clair reportedly agreed to keep Musk’s name off the birth certificate. However, The Wall Street Journal stated that a recent paternity test concluded his “probability of paternity” was 99.9999 percent.
Musk did not publicly acknowledge these claims. Instead, he tweeted a short message at the time: “TMZ>>WSJ.” (Us Weekly had already tried to get his comments previously.)
Musk is the biological father of 13 other children, besides St. Clair’s alleged son. He had six children with his ex-wife, Justine Musk. Three are with singer Grimes. And four are with tech executive Shivon Zilis.