Pete Davidson’s Custody Battle With Elsie Hewitt: The Full Story Behind the Split, the Joke, and the $42,500-a-Month Claim
Pete Davidson said it was his dream to be a dad. Five months after the birth of his daughter Scottie Rose, he and Elsie Hewitt have split — and what started as a private breakup is rapidly becoming one of the messier celebrity custody situations of 2026.
Here is the full story from the beginning.
Who Is Elsie Hewitt?
Elsie Hewitt is a 28-year-old British model who began dating Davidson in early 2025. In July 2025, the couple announced their pregnancy. "Welp now everyone knows we had sex," Hewitt captioned the announcement on Instagram. Scottie Rose Hewitt Davidson — the baby carries both last names — was born in late 2025. Davidson, speaking on The Tonight Show at the time of the pregnancy announcement, called fatherhood his "dream." He told E! News he was "very lucky and very, very happy."
The relationship lasted less than a year after the birth.
The Joke That Changed Everything
While performing at the Fontainebleau hotel in Las Vegas, Davidson made an onstage comment about his daughter. The joke — delivered in his characteristic dark, self-aware style — referenced watching pornography in front of his infant daughter, framing it as something he "powered through." Sources say Hewitt found the comment devastating.
"Elsie always understood that Pete uses comedy as both a defense mechanism and a way of coping with difficult emotions, so she was used to his dark, provocative style of humor," a source told Wonderwall. "But this joke landed very differently and felt sickening to her." According to the source, the joke "brought all of that frustration and loneliness to the surface."
The Deadbeat Dad Allegations
On May 16, Hewitt posted a TikTok video in which she said she was raising Scottie Rose "on my own, which is hard." She has since accused Davidson of failing to assist with co-parenting duties and of not providing adequate financial support.
Davidson's team has pushed back firmly. A source told Us Weekly that he is "very present" and "fully financially supporting the child and Elsie," adding that "he shoulders all of the financial costs, including the costs for Elsie, her rent and her health insurance." The two accounts — Hewitt saying she is doing it alone, Davidson's camp saying he is covering everything — are flatly contradictory, which is typically how these situations look before a court imposes clarity.
The Court Threat
"He may want to keep things quiet, but Elsie has no problem blowing things up and bringing this to court," a source told the U.S. Sun. That threat now appears to be materializing. Reports confirm Hewitt is preparing to pursue formal proceedings over custody and child support.
What the Numbers Could Look Like
A legal expert cited in reporting on the child support battle estimated Davidson's obligation based on his 2025 earnings of over $3 million. The figure they arrived at: approximately $510,000 annually, or $42,500 per month. Hewitt, who made hundreds of thousands through paid partnerships last year, would have her own income factored into the calculation.
The expert also noted that Hewitt's TikTok posts and Davidson's onstage jokes could both be used as evidence in custody proceedings — judges consistently view public airing of private family matters unfavorably, regardless of which party is doing it.
What Comes Next
Neither party has confirmed whether proceedings have formally begun. The earlier onstage joke that first broke the story has now been superseded by a much larger dispute about money, parenting, and what Scottie Rose's daily life actually looks like. Davidson, who repeatedly said fatherhood was the thing he most wanted, now faces the prospect of having that role defined by a family court.
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