Elon Musk and Ashley St. Clair both skipped their custody hearing Thursday as their lawyers haggled over child support in Manhattan.
Three attorneys for Musk, 55, sat down with a matching trio of St. Clair’s lawyers for settlement talks during the afternoon session, though neither the Tesla CEO nor the 28-year-old children’s book author set foot in the courtroom. The negotiations stretched through the scheduled hearing as both sides tried to hammer out terms on money and custody of their 2-year-old son Romulus.
“I’m just being cautiously optimistic. The judge himself is very gracious,” a source familiar with Musk’s side of the case told The Post.
That same source said St. Clair has been pushing for an “astronomical” payout and noted the legal teams are expected back in court next week “to try to close it out.”
St. Clair sued Musk in February 2025 to legally establish paternity and win sole custody of Romulus. Musk has since submitted to court-ordered DNA testing that confirmed he is the boy’s father.
The child support battle has turned increasingly public and bitter. St. Clair claimed in a documentary titled “Musk,” released earlier this month, that the SpaceX founder slashed her monthly payments from $100,000 down to $20,000 after she refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement and went public in 2025 with news that she had borne his 13th child. She said she was facing eviction even with the reduced $20,000 still coming in.
Musk has countered that he already paid St. Clair $2.5 million. He initially told reporters he was “not against finding out” if he was the father, a posture that shifted once the DNA results came back.
The pair first connected in 2023 when Musk began responding to St. Clair’s posts on X. She has said he once messaged her: “We should have a kid.” After she became pregnant, she told followers in a TikTok video that Musk got “weird” with her.
St. Clair also said earlier this month that Musk offered her a lump sum of $15 million plus $100,000 a month for 21 years, totaling roughly $40 million. She turned it down because the deal required her silence, and she didn’t want her son to feel like a secret.
She added that she didn’t want her son’s dignity to be a “commodity.”
Musk has disputed that any such offer was made, with the Times reporting that he said “she has a history of making false claims.”
The prolific father now has 14 children with four different women. His most recent partner, Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, announced earlier this month that the two had broken up.
St. Clair’s most explosive allegation came in the documentary, where she claimed Musk texted her before she gave birth that he wanted a “legion of children before the civil war.”
St. Clair, who has another son from a previous relationship, has framed her legal fight as one about transparency and her child’s identity rather than money alone. Her lawyer declined to comment to reporters while leaving court Thursday.
Musk’s side has painted St. Clair as an unreliable narrator chasing an outsized payday, while she has portrayed him as a controlling billionaire trying to buy silence about their son’s existence.
The case lands in a broader pattern of Musk’s approach to fatherhood and family management across multiple households and mothers. With 14 children now confirmed across four women, the Romulus custody dispute offers a window into how those arrangements get negotiated when they break down.
St. Clair’s lawyer declined to comment on the way out of court.
The lawyers are due back in court next week to continue settlement talks.