Ashley St. Clair says she walked away from $40.2 million. The 28-year-old former conservative influencer — and the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children — told The New York Times she rejected a sweeping nondisclosure agreement about her relationship with the billionaire, choosing instead to speak publicly in a new interview and in Alex Gibney’s explosive documentary Musk.
The Ashley St. Clair NDA claim is the latest bombshell in a saga that has moved from social media to the courts to the Venice Film Festival — and now into movie theaters. Here is what she alleges, how Musk has responded, and why the story keeps growing.
What Ashley St. Clair Says the $40.2 Million NDA Contained
According to St. Clair’s account in the Times interview, published Friday, the proposed deal was worth $40.2 million in total: a $15 million lump-sum payment plus $100,000 a month for 21 years. She said the document arrived about two months after she gave birth in 2024, sent by Jared Birchall — Musk’s longtime financial manager — through the encrypted messaging app Signal.
The conditions, as she described them, went far beyond a standard celebrity NDA. St. Clair said the agreement would have barred her from discussing Musk and their relationship indefinitely — not only in public, but even with members of her own family. She further claimed the restrictions would have extended to her heirs. She rejected it, she said, because the terms were unacceptable, particularly where her children were concerned.
Ashley St. Clair (left) with journalist Zoe Schiffer at the Venice premiere of Alex Gibney’s Musk documentary. (Photo: CaseyJNewell / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)
Elon Musk’s Response: A Flat Denial
Musk has disputed the allegation. After an earlier report about the proposed agreement surfaced, he wrote on X that “she was never offered that and has a history of making false claims,” according to the newspaper. The Times also reported that Musk did not respond to its requests for comment on the interview itself.
That leaves the core of the story in disputed territory: St. Clair’s detailed account of a $40.2 million offer on one side, and Musk’s outright denial on the other. Neither side has produced the document publicly, so for now the public is weighing competing claims rather than confirmed facts.
Elon Musk has denied St. Clair’s claim that she was offered a $40.2 million NDA. (Public domain portrait)
The St. Clair–Musk Saga: A Timeline
To understand how a relationship became a documentary subplot and a headline NDA fight, it helps to rewind. The key moments so far:
- February 2025: St. Clair announces she welcomed a child with Musk five months earlier — reportedly his 13th.
- 2025–2026: A custody dispute plays out in the press, with reports that Musk sought custody of the child.
- January 2026: St. Clair sues xAI, alleging its Grok chatbot was used to create fake sexualized images of her — a case covered by The Guardian and the BBC.
- September 2026: The Telegraph reports she turned down a $40 million NDA to appear in Gibney’s documentary; Musk premieres at the Venice Film Festival to a four-minute standing ovation.
- October 8, 2026: St. Clair spars with streamer Sneako in a CNN interview after criticizing his worldview.
- October 9, 2026: The Times interview is published, and Musk opens theatrically in New York and Los Angeles via Bleecker Street.
Inside Alex Gibney’s “Musk” Documentary
The film giving St. Clair her biggest platform yet is no small production. Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney spent four years assembling a nearly four-hour portrait of the world’s richest man — built from archival footage, depositions, and interviews with Musk’s ex-wife Justine Musk, his father Errol Musk, journalists Kara Swisher and Zoe Schiffer, and St. Clair herself.
Musk declined to participate. In his place, Gibney created an AI-generated avatar that speaks using Musk’s real quotes from public appearances — a choice critics found deeply unsettling. The film also features an original song by David Byrne built entirely from Musk’s own words.
The rollout has been chaotic. Musk’s lawyer threatened legal action over implications about the 2024 election; YouTube, TikTok, and Meta reportedly rejected trailer ads as political content; and Musk himself mocked the director on X. The documentary expands nationwide on October 16, with HBO holding the streaming rights. For more on how celebrity feuds play out on the biggest stages, see our look at celebrity feuds that defined pop culture.
The cast and crew of Alex Gibney’s Musk at the 2026 Venice Film Festival. (Photo: CaseyJNewell / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)
What’s Next for the $40 Million NDA Fight
For now, the dispute sits at an impasse — allegation versus denial, with a four-hour documentary amplifying one side of it. In addition, St. Clair’s separate lawsuit against xAI over alleged Grok deepfakes continues to move through federal court, keeping her legal battles with Musk’s orbit on two fronts at once.
Whether the NDA document ever surfaces publicly could decide how this chapter ends. If it does, expect another news cycle. If it doesn’t, the story will likely live on as one of the defining celebrity-business collisions of 2026 — a $40.2 million question mark hanging over the world’s most-watched billionaire. And as documentaries continue to reshape reputations — much like the streaming hits we covered in Netflix’s Unabomber phenomenon — the court of public opinion may render its own verdict long before any courtroom does.
One thing is certain: with Musk going wide on October 16, this story is not going quiet anytime soon.
