Ashley St. Clair is spilling all the tea.
The former MAGA influencer, who shares 2-year-old son Romulus with Elon Musk, opened about her tumultuous relationship with the SpaceX and Tesla CEO in a Q&A with The New York Times, recounting to the outlet the first time they met in-person.
St. Clair's interview, published Oct. 9, comes a week after tech executive Shivon Zilis revealed that she was "let go" from her relationship with Musk and a month after director Alex Gibney’s documentary about Musk premiered at the Venice Film Festival. In addition to Romulus, St. Clair also has a son from a previous relationship.
St. Clair said she first crossed paths with Musk in 2023 after he followed her on X, formerly known as Twitter, "and slid into my DMs."
At the time, she was writing for The Babylon Bee, a right-wing satire site, and "repeating MAGA talking points" online, primarily on X.
St. Clair, then 23, recalled getting "Congratulations!" texts from people in MAGA when Musk followed her, adding that "right away" people were saying that she was going to be his "next baby mama."
According to St. Clair, the circumstances surrounding their first meet-up all felt "very surreal," as Musk had sprung the idea on her while they were in the middle of an interview.
"We’d been DMing on Twitter, and then during an interview for the Bee, he asked, 'Feel like going to Providence, R.I.?'" she said. "Within an hour, I was on his plane. In Providence, we shared a hotel room, and he fell asleep listening to a podcast about Kublai Khan [the first Mongol ruler of all China]."
She said Musk pitched the idea of having a child together in January 2024 while they were vacationing in St. Bart’s, telling St. Clair that his "only limited resource is time." St. Clair was on board. She, too, wanted more children.
"...It [having Musk's child] meant that I would always be able to take care of my kids financially," she said, adding that "within MAGA, it was seen as a stain on your character to be a single mom."
"So to have this bastion of the right who is very validating of that choice — that meant so much to me," St. Clair continued. Five months after Romulus was born, St. Clair filed for sole custody of their son, and the two have been embroiled in a custody battle over the boy ever since.
USA TODAY has reached out to Musk for comment.
St. Clair on custody battle: 'I have to protect myself'
St. Clair, who described the pair's relationship as "emotionally intimate," told the Times she didn't begin to have doubts about their arrangement until she was pregnant with Romulus.
"Not until I was pregnant and I watched the custody battle between Elon and Grimes [who share three children]. It made me think, 'I have to protect myself,'" she shared.
In the months since filing for sole custody of Romulus, St. Clair has also said that she rejected a $40 million nondisclosure agreement in exchange for her silence, an assertion that Musk has denied.
St. Clair said she was "two months postpartum" when she received the offer, which barred her from speaking publicly about Musk, or their relationship "for eternity" and that the terms also extended to her children.
"Jared Birchall, Elon’s money manager and henchman, sent the document in a disappearing message on Signal. We didn’t have a formal financial agreement, so at that moment, getting the N.D.A. felt like, 'If you would like any kind of support, sign this,'" St. Clair said.
St. Clair chose not to sign, saying the matter was more "moral question than a legal one." "I told him [Birchall] my children’s dignity is not a commodity.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ashley St. Clair details first meeting with Elon Musk
