Ashley St. Clair says she turned down an alleged $40 million non-disclosure agreement after giving birth last year to Elon Musk’s 13th child, and then sat for an interview in Alex Gibney’s documentary Musk. That choice put her, on Tuesday, inside a story about secrecy, money and one of the world’s most watched men.
The timing mattered because Musk premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, giving her comments a public stage at the same moment the nearly four-hour film entered the conversation. St. Clair, 28, said she took part to set an example for her children that they should never choose material comfort over telling the truth.
Her appearance lands with extra weight because St. Clair did not come to public life as a neutral figure. She gained prominence as a right-wing commentator who pushed conservative and anti-trans politics, and she now says she regrets platforming those beliefs. At the press conference, she said she got involved with Republican politics when she was 18 after she met Charlie Kirk, and that there was an air of ignorance around her at the time.
She also framed her participation in the film as a risk worth taking. Speaking at the Venice Film Festival press conference on Tuesday, St. Clair said, “I hope the risk that I’m taking now in speaking out and trying to fight back at least helps a little bit.” That line sharpened the contrast at the center of her story: a woman saying she wants to speak truthfully while also describing the rejection of a payout that, if accepted, would have helped keep that story quiet.
Gibney said he began working on the film about Musk in 2023 and ran into reluctance from potential sources along the way. He also said he first reached out to Musk, who declined to be interviewed, and that many people refused to speak for the documentary. The film’s synopsis casts Musk as less visionary genius than confidence man, while the billionaire has long dismissed the project as a hit piece.
That leaves the biggest unanswered point where the money and the silence meet: what exactly was covered by the alleged $40 million NDA, and how far the pressure to keep it in place went. For now, St. Clair has made the refusal public, and that is the part that can no longer be unwound.
