Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has often joked about the societal need to address reduced birth rates and population decline, has reportedly fathered 13 children with four different women over the years.

The latest woman to claim Musk fathered her child, conservative writer Ashley St. Clair, now claims that he "substantially" reduced the child support he was paying her as retaliation for her going public about their baby, the New York Post's Page Six reported.

The claim that Musk is no longer providing the same level of financial support as he did previously comes as St. Clair has also filed a lawsuit that seeks both sole custody of the child for her and a DNA test to establish Musk's paternity.

St. Clair claims Musk retaliation

People magazine reported that attorneys for St Clair, 26, allege that Musk, 53, has "financially retaliated" against her and their son in response to the lawsuit she filed against him last month, shortly after she went public with her paternity claim against him but received no public response.

"Elon Musk has financially retaliated against his own child and reduced his financial support substantially and unilaterally," St. Clair's legal team said in a statement. "He did this after Ashley was forced to bring this matter to court, when he refused to respond to her many private attempts to resolve this matter without publicity."

"At the same time, he filed an emergency application to gag Ashley and prevent her from communicating about his actions. The judge denied the emergency nature of the application, even though it is still pending," the lawyers continued.

"Ashley is vigorously opposing this application in order to preserve her right to speak-out. All while Mr. Musk fashions himself a First Amendment warrior and freely communicates via his owned social media platform," the attorneys added. "Given that Mr. Musk is dedicated to transparency in government, it would be helpful if he administered his own life by the same principles."

People reached out to Musk's representatives for comment on this developing situation but did not receive a response.

Lawsuit filed to establish paternity

Fox News reported that St. Clair first claimed in a mid-February X post that Musk was the father of her five-month-old child, and further asserted that she only went public with that information because he was no longer responding to her in private and out of concern about imminent tabloid reports about the baby.

When Musk still declined to respond to her public entreaties for him to accept responsibility for the child, St. Clair filed a lawsuit in New York that sought to establish full custody of the child for herself as well as Musk's paternity through a court-ordered DNA test.

The suit alleges that Musk and St. Clair began dating in mid-2023 and conceived the child in January 2024, and included evidence like screenshots of text message conversations that indicated that he was fully aware that he was the father.

She further claimed that Musk has only met the child on three brief occasions between the September birth and late November, and that he has not requested any additional meetings or checked in to see how the child is doing since then.

Demanding full custody and acknowledgement from Musk

"I am, and always have been, the only parent and caretaker that R.S.C. has known. I schedule and take him to all his medical appointments," St. Clair's custody petition said, which only refers to the child's initials, according to Fox News. "I am the only parent who cares for him on a daily basis. I feed him, bathe him, and ensure that all his physical and emotional needs are met."

In a statement at that time, St. Clair's attorneys said, "We are waiting for Elon to publicly acknowledge his parental role with Ashley, to end unwarranted speculation, and Ashley trusts that Elon intends to finish their agreement quickly, in the best interests of the well-being and security of the child they share."