Elon Musk's Ex Ashley St. Clair Spills on Turning Down $40 Million NDA: 'Why Do They Want to Offer Me This Amount of Money to Not Speak?'

Ashley St. Clair, the ex-girlfriend of Elon Musk and the mother of his 13th child, explained her rationale behind turning down $40 million to stay silent about the tech billionaire.

“When you’re offered something like that, it causes a debate in your head about what your speech means and how valuable that is," she said at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, September 8. "Why do they want to offer me this amount of money not to speak?”

St. Clair's decision to reject the money allowed her to speak in the upcoming documentary Musk, directed by Alex Gibney. The doc is a nearly four hours long, unflattering depiction of the tech billionaire. The synopsis says the film argues "that the so-called ‘visionary genius’ is little more than the 21st-century reincarnation of a confidence man.”

"He does have complicated relationships generally, but his most complicated relationship is with the truth," 28-year-old St. Clair said of Musk, per Variety. "I want to set the example for my kids that you should never take being materially comfortable over speaking the truth."

Her decision to reject the NDA payment makes her a star participant in the documentary.

Gibney noted in his talk at the Venice Film Festival that he struggled to find people close to the 55-year-old tech mogul who would speak to him.

“The thing that struck me most, particularly early on, there was a tremendous sense of fear of talking — both among people who were his critics, colleagues and friends,” he said. “I talked to many, many, many people. Many declined to speak.”

Musk himself has spoken out against the documentary, which he declined to participate in, calling it a "hit piece."

St. Clair also discussed how Musk shaped Twitter — renamed "X" under Musk's regime — to contort to his skewed vision of reality.

The influencer said Musk is "causing deliberate division that could be catastrophic if it’s not regulated or contained."

Tech reporter Zoë Schiffer, who also appears in the film, added that Musk "tweaked the algorithm, both to suppress mainstream journalism and then to augment some of the more inflammatory comments and voices on that platform."

St. Clair, a former prominent Republican influencer, said her decision to do the documentary was made in part to atone for bigoted anti-trans views she's pushed over the past decade.

“I got involved with Republican politics when I was 18 after I met Charlie Kirk, and there was an air of ignorance,” she recalled. “But that ignorance does not excuse any role in that. I hope the risk that I’m taking now in speaking out and trying to fight back at least helps a little bit.”

Musk will release in theaters in October.