Nazi-sympathizer and billionaire Elon Musk said he wants full custody of the son he had with conservative author Ashley St. Clair, claiming that “her statements [imply] she might transition a one-year-old boy.” Musk’s comment came after St. Clair publicly criticized Musk for helping generate pornographic images of kids and apologizing for her past transphobia. Musk already has an estranged trans daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, who has disavowed his transphobia.

On January 11, a user of Musk’s social media platform X asked St. Clair how she felt about transgender people, considering the far right’s transphobia and St. Clair’s own “blatant transphobia” in the past. (She wrote a transphobic 2021 children’s book Elephants Are Not Birds). St. Clair responded, “I feel immense guilt for my role. And even more guilt that things I have said in the past may have caused my son’s sister more pain. [I don’t really know] 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.”

Related

Elon Musk is giving legal help to an activist who posted a photo of a trans woman in a bathroom

St. Clair said that she has remained mostly silent about trans issues but hasn’t said much on the issue because she has felt unsure whether her voice would be helpful on the issue.

“[Anything pro-trans thing I say] will be framed as disingenuous or just turning bc I’m ‘scorned.’ Even this reply will become right wing hysteria but yeah I am sorry,” she wrote.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Last year, St. Clair announced that she had “welcomed a new baby” into the world, fathered by Musk, in September 2024. She added that she had previously kept the infant’s existence a secret for safety and privacy reasons, but came forth after learning that tabloid media had intended to reveal its existence.

She had previously said that Musk hadn’t responded to her repeated attempts to speak with him about their child, but later added, that she and Musk had been working on an “agreement about raising their child… in the best interests of the wellbeing and security of the child.”

St. Clair has made numerous recent posts calling out Musk for allowing X’s AI chatbot, Grok, to generate child pornography as well as sexual images of her and other real-life women without their consent. Numerous media outlets have recently reported on this, and Musk is now facing legal probes in Europe, India, and Malaysia because of it.

In a January 10 X post, St. Clair wrote, “can someone explain how 0.26% of the population potentially playing women’s sports is a threat worthy of executive order from the president but the twitter mechahitler robot that makes child sexual abuse material + distributes it publicly is not.”

St. Clair claims that after her repeated critical comments, X revoked her membership in the platform’s premium service (including the associated blue checkmark next to her screename) and paused her involvement in the platform’s monetization and revenue-sharing programs. She has additionally claimed that the Grok chatbot has been specifically restricted from responding to her inquiries about sexualized images it created of her.

Musk has a long and well-documented history of transphobia, including support for jailing providers of gender-affirming care. He claimed that his daughter, Vivian Wilson, was “killed by the woke mind virus.” Musk’s former partner, the musician Grimes, left Musk and began a relationship with trans female military whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

Musk has had 14 children with at least four different women. Grimes, who had three children with Musk, wrote that her year-long legal battle for custody of one of her children nearly bankrupted her and had transformed Musk into someone “unrecognizable” to her.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.