Musk Ex Says He Sought a 'Legion of Children Before Civil War' and Warns X Stirs Division

VENICE, Italy — Ashley St. Clair, the former conservative commentator who had a son with Elon Musk in 2024, said at the Venice Film Festival that Musk once texted her that they needed "a legion of children before the civil war," and she warned that his use of X is stoking divisions that could have "catastrophic" effects.

The remarks came at the premiere of "Musk," a nearly four-hour documentary by Alex Gibney that opened Tuesday on the Lido. St. Clair appears in the film and spoke to reporters afterward. Asked whether she thought Musk feared a civil war or was trying to provoke one, she did not choose.

"Whatever it is, what he's doing with this platform on X cannot be ignored, because he is stoking flames that don't exist in the real world," she said. "He is creating something that is causing real world effects with all of these inputs on X. I do believe that he is causing deliberate division that may be catastrophic if it's not regulated or tamed, or if we don't do our part in putting it down."

She described the "legion" line as a text sent while they were discussing having a child. They later had a son, Romulus, and separated. St. Clair has said Musk's team offered her a $40 million lump sum and a $100,000 monthly stipend in return for a nondisclosure agreement, then withdrew the offer when she refused. Earlier court-related reporting put a prior figure lower. Those dollar amounts are her account and have not been independently verified in public filings cited at the premiere.

St. Clair also said she wanted her children to see that comfort should not outrank candor. "His most complicated relationship is with the truth," she told reporters. "Most importantly, I want to set the example for my kids that you should never take materially being comfortable over speaking the truth." She has said she now regrets some of her earlier political activism.

Musk has not released the text she described. On X, after users circulated old clips of St. Clair using "civil war" language in a different political context, he replied to one post, "Sanity is not her strength." He has previously called her "evil" in response to other claims about their relationship. Those replies address her credibility, not the wording of the message she attributes to him.

The claim sits inside a public record Musk has built himself. He has argued for years that falling birth rates threaten civilization and has fathered 14 publicly acknowledged children with four women: five with his former wife Justine Wilson, three with the musician Grimes, four with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, and one with St. Clair. He has framed large families as a response to demographic decline, not as a private war plan. St. Clair's account links that natalism to an expectation of domestic conflict. Musk's public comments have included warnings about civil strife in other countries; they are not the same as the text she recounts.

Gibney's film treats the private life, the companies and the platform as one subject. Musk owns X after buying Twitter in 2022 and has used it as his main channel for politics, product news and attacks on critics. Supporters call that free speech. St. Clair, once aligned with the same right-wing media world that celebrated the purchase, now says the feed manufactures heat that then shows up off the screen. She did not specify a law she wants. She said the alternative to some form of restraint is leaving the consequences to "our part in putting it down."

Custody and money already sit in the background. Musk and St. Clair have been in a dispute over their son. Offers, NDAs and competing characterizations of who pursued whom have spilled onto the same platform she now accuses of distorting reality. Users have posted screenshots they say show her earlier enthusiasm for a relationship with Musk. She presents herself as someone who declined a large payment to speak. He presents her as unreliable. A newsroom can report both postures without treating either as settled fact.

The Venice setting matters only as timing. Festival premieres turn unfinished arguments into global clips. A four-hour authorized-feeling portrait that includes an ex willing to talk is catnip for the same attention economy St. Clair says Musk exploits. Gibney has a long record of adversarial documentaries. Musk did not stand on the carpet to rebut the line about a legion.

What can be stated cleanly is narrow. St. Clair says Musk texted her that he needed many children before a civil war. She says X is amplifying divisions that could become dangerous if left untended. Musk has not confirmed the text and has publicly dismissed her judgment. He remains the owner of the platform, the father of a large and complicated set of households, and a figure whose posts move markets and politics. Whether a private message about children and war is prophecy, dark humor, natalist rhetoric or something she misremembers is not something a premiere Q-and-A can prove.

The policy question she raised is older than the film. Platforms the size of X already sit under competing demands to police speech and to leave it alone. St. Clair's conversion — from partisan influencer to critic of the man who amplified that world — will be read through that fight. Her warning is that the owner is not a neutral host. His reply is that she is not a reliable witness. The text, if it exists in the form she described, would sit between those two sentences. Until it is produced, the story is an allegation at a film festival, a billionaire's one-line rebuttal, and a platform that will carry both until the next clip lands.