'Over Disappearing Signal Messages': Elon Musk's Ex Exposes Shady $40M NDA Offered After Birth of His 13th Child

Elon Musk's former partner Ashley St. Clair has alleged that the tech billionaire tried to secure her silence with a non-disclosure agreement worth up to $40 million after she gave birth to his 13th child, describing the offer as arriving via 'disappearing' Signal messages and ultimately refusing to sign it.

St. Clair, a 27-year-old former conservative influencer, publicly revealed in February 2025 that Musk is the father of her son Romulus, then five months old. That disclosure pushed the already chaotic public record of Musk's private life into even stranger territory, arriving just as he confirmed he had also recently welcomed another son, his 14th child, with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis.

Speaking on the 16 June episode of the Don Lemon Show podcast, St. Clair claimed the NDA proposal emerged shortly after she informed Musk she was pregnant. She recalled being stunned not just by the figures involved but by the way the conversation took place. 'It was a shock, especially the way in which [the NDA] was presented over disappearing Signal messages,' she said, framing the contact as something closer to a covert operation than a standard legal agreement.

St. Clair has said she and Musk had been in a relationship before the pregnancy and that she already had an older child from a previous relationship. In a TikTok video posted last month, she told followers that things between her and Musk shifted sharply once she was expecting.

'As soon as I'm pregnant, this is when things start getting weird,' she said. 'There's just things that are not adding up or that are different from what he previously said to me.' Her new account on Lemon's podcast is the most detailed version yet of what she says happened next.

Elon Musk, The NDA Offer And 'Disappearing' Messages

According to St. Clair, the NDA talks began with what looked like a simple act of generosity from Musk himself. She says Musk messaged both her and his long-time wealth manager, Jared Birchall, instructing that she be sent a significant sum. 'Originally, Elon had sent a message to me and Jared that said, 'Wire Ashley $15 million for a home and reserve capital,' and that was it,' she alleged.

A few days later, however, the tone shifted. St. Clair says Birchall, who manages Musk's family office, Excession, called her and kept her on the phone for about two hours. During that conversation, she claims, the $15 million was recast as part of a far more stringent deal. 'A few days later, Jared has this two-hour-long phone call with me, where he's [saying] basically there's going to have to be some sort of NDA,' she told Lemon.

St. Clair alleges the final proposal was explicit. She says Musk, now 54, offered her $15 million upfront and $100,000 per month for 20 years, on the condition she kept the relationship and its details secret. By her calculation, that package would have been worth about $39 million to $40 million in total. In exchange, she claims she was told she would have to agree never to speak publicly about Musk, his employees or affiliates, and never to disparage him in any context.

'I was never to disparage Elon. I was never to speak about anything, including his employees, his affiliates, nothing,' she said. 'I replied to Jared and said, I cannot in good conscience sign this.'

'Moral Decision' And Silence From Elon Musk

St. Clair insists her refusal was rooted less in money than in what she calls a duty to her children. '[I was] making the moral decision,' she said on the podcast. She added that she told Musk's camp: 'I would rather go to a studio apartment with both of my children than sign this.' For a woman who once worked in political messaging, the framing is deliberate. She wants this understood not as a messy celebrity breakup but as a question about how much power, and privacy, the ultra-wealthy can buy.

Since turning down the NDA, St. Clair says she has had no contact with Musk. 'St. Clair confirmed she has not spoken to the Tesla honcho since turning down the NDA,' the original report notes. That leaves any future arrangements around custody or financial support unclear, though she has previously said publicly that she intends to raise her children without sacrificing her ability to speak about her experiences.

Before Romulus's birth was made public, Musk had, according to St. Clair, threatened to seek 'full custody' of their child, allegedly in response to her 'coming out in support of trans grooming.' The wording of that allegation is his characterisation, relayed by her, and it taps straight into the culture-war battles that once made her a familiar face in right-wing online circles. It also underscores just how politically charged their private disputes had become even before lawyers and NDAs entered the picture.

Musk has not yet responded to the latest claims aired on the Don Lemon Show. Page Six, which first reported the NDA story, said it had reached out to him for comment, but none had been provided at the time of publication. Birchall has also not publicly addressed St. Clair's version of events. Without their accounts or documentation, her description of the NDA and the Signal messages remains her allegation rather than an established fact, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

St. Clair appears to be betting that public transparency offers better protection than a sealed deal, even one priced at tens of millions of dollars. In the world orbiting Musk, that is a rarer choice than the cheques themselves.