Elon Musk, a vocal champion of large families, is now in a custody battle with the most recent mother of his children.

Musk is no stranger to such battles. He is estranged from his transgender-identified son who publicly calls him a “pathetic man-child.” He fought a years-long custody battle with one of his wives, the mother of three of his children. And while he appears to have a cordial relationship with Shivon Zilis, the mother of four of his children, the pair do not have a romantic relationship as they conceived their children via in vitro fertilization.

In all, Musk has 14 children with roughly four different women, many of whom he holds no passion towards, their union being a mere technological convenience begun in a petri dish.

The once-conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair is one of the only women whose child with Musk – a now one-year-old boy – resulted from an actual physical romantic tryst. Yet there is no love left between the two. St. Clair took their quarrel public on Valentine’s Day 2025, exchanging cutting remarks on Musk’s X platform detailing a battle over paternity support.

The jilted St. Clair has done a subsequent about-face on her previous conservative beliefs, posting recently that she regrets critical statements she had made regarding Musk’s estranged transgender daughter.

“I feel immense guilt for my role. And even more guilt that things I have said in the past may have caused my son’s sister more pain,” St. Clair wrote. “[I don’t really know] how to make amends for many of these things, but I have been trying incredibly hard privately to learn + advocate for those within the trans community that I’ve hurt.”

Musk, one of the richest men in the world, responded by continuing their ongoing custody battle before the world.

“I will be filing for full custody today, given her statements implying she might transition a one-year-old boy,” he said.

Musk has spoken often about the problems of the declining birthrate, earning him an element of respect amongst the pronatalist crowd. Musk is correct when he notes that, “Low birth rates will end civilization.” But his current method of scientific licentiousness isn’t how we fix this problem.

Musk often expresses sorrow at what he calls the death of his son, who goes by the name Vivian Jenna Wilson and now publicly identifies as a girl.

“My son, Xavier, is dead, killed by the virus of the woke mentality,” Musk has said.

Yet as sad as this truly is, Musk must admit that he has played a part in his son’s political and personal evolution. As hard, albeit possible, as it would be to maintain a healthy presence as a father in the lives of 14 children with one woman under one roof, it would be completely impossible to maintain this kind of paternal relationship with 14 different children with four different women, many of whom hate him. St. Clair herself has claimed that Musk has met their son all of three times.

It seems clear that children are a number to Musk. His children and their mothers’ fertility is but a scientific experiment, a mathematical problem that happens to result in ensouled beings: Semen + a fertile and healthy womb = children. Such formulaic calculations may be how Musk’s AI robots work, but not human children.

Children need love, particularly the love of two parents directed towards both each other and the child. They need a home, warm predictability, and security. Otherwise, they will find this security somewhere else, even in the arms of the woke-mind virus.

Likewise, women need love, especially the love of the man who fathers their children. Otherwise, they will find this acceptance elsewhere, even in the arms of the left-wing they once eschewed.

Musk’s embarrassing personal battles are a tragedy for the children and parents actually involved in them. The issues he deals with so publicly should be a stern warning to anyone with a penchant to flippantly create life, whether to satisfy carnal desire or the falling birth rate. There is no shortcut to fixing the birthrate crisis. Strong, intact families where fathers have babies upon babies with the same women until death parts them is the only answer.

This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News.

Image credit: Picryl