Musk’s bizarre child support battles show he is a monumental tightwad

In case you missed it or were distracted by Tesla’s ongoing problems, Elon Musk is currently embroiled in his second highly publicised argument over child support payments, with the mother of one of his many children alleging the tech billionaire isn’t doing the right thing.

If you’re wondering why I’m talking about a man largely considered to be a moron by millions of people and what, at first glance, seems like a pretty tawdry affair, please stick with me.

Elon Musk in Wisconsin, where he paid $32 million for a failed judicial election.Credit: AP

Musk has long been an advocate for having many children and believes that the declining birth rates in developed countries – including Australia – is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. While the issue may be a real one, a pretty basic element in becoming a parent is agreeing to care for your children. That includes financially.

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of why the new unofficial president of the United States is behaving like Ebenezer Scrooge, a quick refresher: Musk has 14 children with four women.

Six with author Justine Wilson (though one of their children tragically died at 10 weeks old), three with musician Grimes (real name Claire Boucher), four with his employee Shivon Zilis, and the last is with right-wing influencer and author Ashley St. Clair, who welcomed a son late last year.

This week, St. Clair alleged Musk had cut their son’s child support payments by 60 per cent. He responded via X (the social media platform he owns), saying, “I don’t know if the child is mine or not … Despite not knowing for sure, I have given Ashley $US2.5M and am sending her $US500k/year.”

Strip away the abnormal sums of money, and this is a story I have seen and heard far too many times from far too many women and men.

This might be true, but it’s extremely difficult to understand why anyone – billionaire or regular Joe – would offer someone a lump sum and yearly stipend if the child they were telling the world is yours was not yours.

The other point I’d make here was actually made perfectly by St. Clair herself, who responded by explaining, “You weren’t sending *me* money, you were sending support for your child”. That’s why it’s called child support, Elon.

Many people will probably think the huge sums already allegedly given to St. Clair (which equates to almost $4 million and $800,000 in Australian dollars) are much more than anyone could ever need to comfortably raise a child, so what is she complaining about, right? To that, I would point out that to Musk, this money represents a drop in the ocean.

On Thursday, his net worth was estimated to be $US342 billion. To put that into perspective, the wealth of the second-richest person, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, is $US215 billion. He trails Musk by $US126 billion.

That means that $US2.5 million payment represents 0.0007 per cent of Musk’s estimated net worth. By comparison, a takeaway coffee represents roughly 0.005 per cent of most people’s annual salary.

So why is he going to war and potentially putting his relationship with his child at risk in the process? Well, this seems to be a pattern of behaviour.

Having separated in 2022, it’s reported Musk allegedly pays Grimes the legally required maximum per Texas state law – no more than $US2760 – each month in child support for their three children.

Again, to most of us, that sounds like ample child support, but when you consider he casually dropped more than $US20 million on a state judicial election (that didn’t even end up going his way) recently and more than $US290 million on the 2024 presidential election, you can see how it appears Musk is using his money as a weapon.

Elon Musk with former partner Grimes, the mother of three of his children, X, Y and Techno Mechanicus.Credit: AP

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 16 per cent of women and 7.8 per cent of men have experienced economic abuse. Also known as financial abuse, this can occur when one person effectively controls or limits the freedom of another person by withholding access to money, controlling financial decisions, or restricts their ability to have financial independence. And unfortunately, this behaviour can take many other forms, and is not limited to romantic relationships.

It doesn’t always, but it can look like a chief executive threatening employees that they will lose stock options if they unionise, as was the case with Tesla workers in 2018. Or it could include a company owner demanding former employees repay $1500 in a bid to send a message to existing staff, which occurred with X employees in 2023.

Perhaps it looks like the richest man in the world hiring some of the best and most expensive lawyers in the country to go up against a single mother of three young children who said she “just slept or cried every minute I wasn’t explicitly fighting for my kids” during a year-long custody battle, and noted that going up against someone with “a fraction of his resources” almost sent her bankrupt.

Without solid evidence, there can be no allegation that Musk is definitively guilty of financial abuse. But in an absolute best-case scenario, he’s clearly a monumental tightwad who seems to take pleasure from lording his rivers of cash over those with substantially less power, including his own children and the women who he chose to have them with.

It’s easy to look at a story about Donald Trump’s new BFF and an influencer locked in a battle over money as tacky or to say, “Who cares?” But strip away the abnormal sums of money, and this is a story I have seen and heard far too many times from far too many women and men. I’m sure you’ve seen it, heard it, or experienced it before, too.

That’s why when we see someone famous behaving this way, we shouldn’t simply call them an idiot and keep scrolling. We should have a serious conversation about what we’re seeing, what it means, and if this is something we consider to be acceptable.

Personally, I find Musk’s behaviour to be even uglier and more repugnant than the Tesla Cybertruck.

Victoria Devine is an award-winning retired financial adviser, bestselling author and host of Australia’s No.1 finance podcast, She’s on the Money. She is also the founder and director of Zella Money.

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

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