Gender reassignment?
Musk wants custody of Romulus
Updated January 13, 2026 – 6:45 a.mReading time: 3 minutes
Right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair has apologized for previous statements about trans people. Elon Musk apparently sees her change of heart as a danger to their son.
Elon Musk is involved in an escalating dispute with right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair – now the Tesla and SpaceX boss has announced that he will apply for sole custody of their son. The background is apparently a public change of heart on the part of St. Clair when dealing with trans people, to which Musk responded with sharp criticism.
“I will be filing for sole custody today,” Musk wrote on Platform However, St. Clair’s statements do not allow any conclusions to be drawn that the child’s gender transition is planned.
St. Clair, who is said to be 27 years old according to the US magazine “People”, publicly apologized last weekend for previous transphobic comments. She wrote on This apparently refers to Vivian Wilson, Musk’s eldest daughter, who came out as trans in 2020.
St. Clair added that she has worked “extraordinarily hard to learn privately and to advocate for people in the trans community that I have hurt.” She rejected criticism that her change of course seemed implausible: “This answer will also trigger right-wing hysteria, but yes, I’m sorry. Tell me how I can help.”
St. Clair became known in the USA for her book “Elephants Are Not Birds” – a children’s book that speaks out against the rights of trans people.
In February 2025, St. Clair first made it public that she had a son with Musk. The child was five months old at the time. She explained that she initially kept the boy secret for security reasons, but media reports forced her to publish it.
Musk reacted cautiously at the time: He didn’t know for sure whether he was the father, but he “gave Ashley $2.5 million and send her $500,000 a year,” he wrote on X.
St. Clair disagreed with this account. Musk refused to take a paternity test before the birth, she wrote. The financial support was not a voluntary gift: “You sent support for your child because you thought it was necessary – until you cut off most of it in order to exercise control and punish me for ‘disobedience’.” So far, Musk has only seen his son, who goes by the first name “Romulus,” in person three times. He was not involved in his upbringing.
