Key Takeaways
- Ashley St. Clair claims Elon Musk told her they needed “a legion of children before the civil war,” linking his warnings about population collapse to fears of violent unrest.
- St. Clair says she rejected an alleged $40 million offer to stay silent and instead shared her story in Alex Gibney’s documentary Musk, while accusing Musk of fueling division through X.
- Musk, who has 14 publicly known children, declined to participate in the film and dismissed it as a “hit piece.”
Elon Musk has spent years publicly warning about population collapse. According to the mother of one of his 14 publicly known children, his private reasoning went considerably further.
According to Variety, Ashley St. Clair claims Musk told her in a text message that they needed to have “a legion of children before the civil war,” a revelation featured in Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour documentary Musk, which premiered on Tuesday, September 8, at the Venice Film Festival. St. Clair, who shares son Romulus with Musk, also says she walked away from an alleged $40 million deal that would have required her to stay silent.
“I was offered the opportunity not to speak for $40 million,” St. Clair told reporters in Venice. She said the offer forced her to consider why her silence was worth that much in the first place. St. Clair ultimately participated in Gibney’s film, saying she wanted to show her children that material security should not come at the expense of speaking truthfully.
And “legion” isn't much of an exaggeration when it comes to Musk's family tree. Musk has fathered 14 publicly known children with four women, although his firstborn, Nevada, died in infancy. With former wife Justine Wilson, he also shares twins Griffin and Vivian and triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian.
Musk later had three children with Grimes—X Æ A-Xii, Exa Dark Sideræl and Techno Mechanicus—and four with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. St. Clair gave birth to Romulus in 2024.
The documentary reports that additional children may exist who have not been publicly identified.
The billionaire has repeatedly framed declining birth rates as a threat to civilization. But according to St. Clair, his concern about collapse extended to an expectation of civil war—and his own children were somehow part of preparing for it.
She now has questions about whether Musk is merely anticipating division or contributing to it.
“What he's doing with this platform on X cannot be ignored,” St. Clair said, accusing Musk of “stoking flames that don't exist in the real world.” She added that she believes he is creating “deliberate division” with potentially catastrophic consequences.
St. Clair's appearance in Musk also represents a sharp break from her own political history. The 28-year-old rose to prominence as a conservative commentator but told reporters in Venice that she regrets helping promote some of those beliefs. “There was an air of ignorance,” she said of entering Republican politics at 18, adding that ignorance “does not excuse any role in that.”
Musk declined to participate in Gibney's documentary and has previously dismissed the project as a “hit piece.” Gibney said even getting others to participate proved difficult. “There was a tremendous sense of fear of talking,” the filmmaker said of approaching Musk's critics, colleagues and friends.
