It matters that Elon Musk has so many kids – here's why

I generally try to pay as little attention to Elon Musk as possible, for the same reason that I don’t look at children who are having screaming fits in the playground: I have nothing useful to offer and I suspect that they might be looking for attention.

But that policy has been sorely tested over the last couple of days since I read reports that Musk has allegedly fathered another child, this time with 26-year-old right-wing influencer Ashley St Clair, who he apparently met online.

Musk has not confirmed or denied St Clair’s claims that he is the father of her child. However, he did respond with a cryptic “whoa” on X after a user accused St Clair of spending years trying to trap Musk.

What’s concerned me most about this story is that online it’s being heralded as some kind of triumph.

GB News‘s Tom Harwood posted on X: ‘”Musk puts his money where his mouth is when it comes to pronatalism. Smart and successful people should procreate more.” A sentiment emulated by thousands of people posting online to congratulate Musk on what, if true, would be his 13th child.

It’s not as if I’m obsessed with the nuclear family. I’m planning to have more children with someone who is very much not the father of my existing child – it’s all very Modern Family at my house.

But I can tell you first hand that there’s an essential level of gravity required to raising a child in a non-traditional set-up. It takes maturity and robust emotional health to co-parent successfully.

I’d really like to convince myself that it doesn’t matter, that the actions of one eccentric man can’t have any real world impact on the rest of us. But sadly, that’s just not true.

Musk is sufficiently powerful, and that has an impact on how the world around him functions. I doubt he is actually trying to spawn a movement by, well, spawning, but intentional or otherwise, the outcome is the same.

I am genuinely worried that in the same way he popularised electric cars there might be a real risk that he’s going to popularise having as many children as you can, via as many women as you want. The last thing the world needs is for men to regard fatherhood as a status symbol and a land grab because they believe it is the “alpha” thing to do.

The online support for the 53-year-old billionaire supposedly having a 13th child with a fourth woman is predominantly coming from a group of people who identify as “pro-natalists” – a faction who worry me deeply.

On the face of it, I should be a pro-natalist. I was dramatically improved as a person by having children, I deeply believe that anyone who wants a child should have one, and I am absolutely resolute that unless we do more to help people to have larger families, we are going to sleepwalk into a birth crisis. I think where possible big families are a wonderful gift and I think it’s a shame that many couples don’t have as many children as they would like to, due to financial constraints.

So in theory, these people should be natural bedfellows. And yet, despite agreeing on lots of fundamentals, these people have completely lost me because they prioritise having as many babies as possible, regardless of any other factor.

For instance, their views on procreation often require women to stay at home and raise children while doing all of the domestic labour, and give little to no credence to the physical impact of large numbers of pregnancies on a woman’s body, despite the fact that multiple pregnancies close together can cause organ damage, loss of bone density, vaginal prolapse and incontinence.

Having as many babies as possible with as many people as possible is not progressive, or ideal. Accidents happen and I’m not here to judge, but Musk isn’t having continual contraceptive oopsies: nine of his kids have been born via IVF, the most deliberate way a person could reproduce.

The only one of Musk’s children we have seen pictured with him of late is his son X, who he paraded around the Oval Office last week, which the child’s mother, Grimes, later criticised. Elon’s daughter Viviene speaks openly about having no contact with her father and explained last week that she has found out about the birth of two of her siblings via social media.

Having children is one of the most important, serious, significant things a human can do.

When Musk wanted more of us driving electric cars, he made it happen. When he wanted to change the way free speech operates online, he made it happen. So between his personal track record and his previous statement that there is a “terrible morality to those who deliberately have no kids”, I am actively worried about what other men will do to follow in his footsteps.