Elon Musk has announced his intention to seek full custody of his youngest child following a series of social media posts by the child’s mother, Ashley St Clair, that showed support for the transgender community. Musk’s decision was revealed through a response he made to concerned users on the platform X, after they highlighted St Clair’s recent online remarks. Musk, 54, stated, “I will be filing for full custody today, given her statements implying she might transition a one-year-old boy.” Notably, St Clair has not explicitly suggested transitioning her son, yet her posts have been interpreted as supportive of transgender rights.

In her recent social media activity, St Clair expressed regret over any transphobic comments she might have made in the past. She reflected on her previous statements, admitting guilt and expressing a desire to make amends. One of her posts read, “Twitter was better when it was woke tbh,” and she further criticized certain factions, suggesting, “Dark woke cause the other option is bootlicking feds + pedophiles + nerds.” Responding to a user questioning her past transphobia, St Clair confessed, “I feel immense guilt for my role,” and acknowledged the potential harm her words may have caused.

St Clair’s comments gain additional context considering one of Musk’s other children, Vivian, came out as transgender in 2022 and has publicly criticized Musk on social media. St Clair conveyed her ongoing efforts to advocate for the transgender community, despite grappling with the perception of her sincerity. She wrote, “I have been trying incredibly hard privately to learn + advocate for those within the trans community that I’ve hurt.” However, she expressed uncertainty about her role, fearing that her voice might be misconstrued or her motives questioned.

In 2024, Musk condemned the transitioning of Vivian, named Xavier at birth, and said he was ‘essentially tricked’ into signing documents for her. ‘This was really before I had any understanding of what was going on, and we had COVID going on, so there was a lot of confusion. And I was told Xavier might commit [self-murder],’ he said. ‘I was tricked into doing this. It wasn’t explained to me that puberty blockers are actually sterilization drugs. I lost my son, essentially. They call it “deadnaming” for a reason. The reason they call it “deadnaming” is because your son is dead, so my son, Xavier, is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.’ Vivian, however, hit back at her father, with whom she had had a tense relationship, and said in an interview with NBC News: ‘I think he was under the assumption that I wasn’t going to say anything and I would just let this go, unchallenged. [But] I’m not going to do [that] because if you’re going to lie about me, like, blatantly to an audience of millions, I’m not just gonna let that slide. I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip that I didn’t know was actually just an advertisement for one of the cars — I don’t remember which one — and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high. It was cruel.’

Discussing his comment that he had been ‘tricked’ into approving gender-affirming medical care for Vivian, she added: ‘He was not by any means tricked.’ She went on to describe the puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy she received as ‘saving lives.’ In a post on X, Musk also said that Vivian was ‘ born gay and slightly autistic’ and that, at age 4, she fit certain gay stereotypes, such as loving musicals. Vivian replied by saying: ‘He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there. And in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness. I’ve been reduced to a happy little stereotype,’ she continued. ‘I think that says a lot about how he views queer people and children in general.’ The Tesla billionaire fathered six children with his first wife, Justine Wilson, and the oldest of them passed away.Musk also has three children with his ex, singer-songwriter Grimes, and three more with Neuralink employee Shivon Zilis.

St Clair announced publicly that she welcomed a baby fathered by Musk on X after the pair had been seen flirting on the social media platform. The influencer kept her pregnancy largely under wraps, keeping her on-camera appearances last year tightly cropped, and not appearing at public events for several months. But once the baby was born, she continued her meteoric rise in MAGA circles, including showing up at Donald Trump’s election night party at Mar-a-Lago. St Clair shared photos on X of herself at Trump’s estate with Congressman Matt Gaetz’s wife, Ginger, and GOP spokesman Elizabeth Pipko. She has also been pictured with Vivek Ramaswamy and FBI Director Kash Patel. Staff at St Clair’s luxury condo tower say they have not seen any sign of Musk – adding that they would have had to ‘shut down’ the building to accommodate his security detail had he visited. ‘The Elon Musk thing doesn’t surprise me,’ a resident of the building told the Daily Mail. ‘She was definitely one of the first people in a pretty large, luxury building to get a Cybertruck. ‘She’s not particularly social with other residents,’ a neighbor told the Daily Mail. ‘There’s definitely a baby, and I believe there’s a toddler as well. ‘Her nanny is very much full-time.’

St Clair filed a lawsuit against her baby’s fatheron February 21 last year, claiming Musk told her to keep the baby secret, then ghosted her and their son in the middle of child support negotiations, forcing her to take legal action. Musk’s attorneys had previously successfully petitioned the judge to seal the case on March 14, keeping its details secret and limiting St. Clair’s ability to speak out. In March, St Clair also revealed she had been forced to sell her $100,000 Tesla after Musk cut her child support in half. She was spotted handing over the keys to her black Model S outside her Manhattan apartment.