In 2018, Kezia Schaffer was a young Christian living in Australia when she reached out to Elijah Schaffer, an emerging American conservative podcaster, to tell him she enjoyed his program.
Although Kezia had declined an invitation to visit him, Elijah traveled to Australia to meet her, according to a family friend who spoke to the Daily Mail. Within roughly a month, he was telling her he wanted to marry her. The couple wed in July 2019—he was 26 and she was 23.
Elijah, now 33, later built a career in mainstream conservative media. He gained wider recognition as a BlazeTV host, particularly for his coverage of the 2020 protests following George Floyd’s death.
That career came to an abrupt end in September 2022, when Blaze Media announced that it had dismissed him for violating company policies and standards. Reports at the time also raised allegations of sexual misconduct, while Schaffer described his departure only as something that had been “a long time coming.”
He later re-established himself within the online Christian right, forming an association with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and launching RiftTV. Through the outlet, he promoted “traditional marriage” to an audience of more than 800,000 followers on X.
That image of a Christian family man unraveled in February, days after he filed for divorce from Kezia. Online recordings circulated claims that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with Sarah Stock, a 21-year-old employee.
Stock did not directly dispute the allegations. In a post later deleted from her social media accounts, she referred to “mistakes/unwise decisions I have made that I deeply regret.” Schaffer wrote on X that “Sarah Stock has NOTHING to do w/ my divorce.”
In her August divorce petition, Kezia cited adultery as the grounds for ending the marriage but did not identify anyone by name.
While much of the MAGA movement has moved past the controversy, the couple has spent nearly eight months embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their two sons, who are now three and one.
“She’s got no one,” a family friend told the Daily Mail, describing Kezia as a young mother separated by thousands of miles from her relatives in Australia. “She can’t leave. She’s just f***ing stuck here.”
Elijah and Kezia Schaffer with their two children. They first met in Australia after Elijah traveled there to see Kezia, who had contacted him online to say she was a fan of his show
Sarah Stock and Charlie Kirk. According to Kezia, Stock was 21 when she and Schaffer, her employer, began an affair
The family had been living in Texas for only a few weeks when the marriage broke down. They had relocated from Florida to Frisco in December.
Schaffer filed for divorce in Florida on January 22. Nine days later, Kezia, now 30, left the family home with the children and appeared in Denton County, Texas, court on February 5.
A default order issued on March 5 awarded Kezia sole custody, and she took the boys to Australia several days later. In April, however, a judge overturned that order at Schaffer’s request and directed her to return the children to the United States.
The parents are now contesting custody as part of the Texas divorce case Kezia filed in August.
In a declaration signed under penalty of perjury and submitted with her February filing, Kezia alleged that Schaffer had “emptied our joint account and blocked/canceled all my debit and credit cards.”
Schaffer rejected those allegations in a sworn affidavit filed in March. He claimed Kezia had “leased her own home after secretly withdrawing money from our joint account to fund it,” adding that he paid her rent and offered financial support that she declined. He said he believed her cards had been “frozen due to suspected fraud.”
His April filing included a text message Kezia allegedly sent on February 2: “Elijah, can you please unblock all my bank cards and credit cards.”
Kezia said in her February declaration that her parents had taken turns traveling from Australia “so that I am not alone here with our children.”
A motion filed by Kezia’s lawyer on September 10 states that Schaffer has paid nothing of the $2,925 a month in child support a Texas judge ordered from February 19, putting his arrears at $23,400.
The motion says he has also failed to pay $7,500 the judge ordered toward her legal fees.
A recent social media post from Schaffer where he described his weight loss. He frequently posts sexual content on his X feed
Elijah and Kezia Schafffer in happier times
Kezia Schaffer holds one of her children
For most of their marriage he ‘drank alcohol on most days of the week,’ Kezia stated in her February declaration, though she said he appeared to have stopped about two months earlier.
In recent months he had also been taking ‘large quantities of kratom daily,’ a herbal substance with opioid-like effects, she stated, and had told her he had been prescribed anti-anxiety medication Xanax and the antipsychotic Seroquel.
At times he appeared ‘heavily sedated, disoriented, or excessively groggy during the day,’ Kezia said in her declaration, and at others he was ‘agitated, impulsive, and unable to regulate his emotions,’ according to the filing.
He was posting throughout. On February 3, he told his X followers that his wife and children were ‘filed as missing persons’ and that ‘they have kidnapped my family,’ according to copies of the since-deleted posts filed in court.
‘I am a victim of serious targeted felony crimes,’ he wrote, adding: ‘I believe the FBI is trying to destroy my life & kill me.’
Other posts entered as exhibits at the February hearing included, ‘Expose it all. It’s healing to me. Post my d*** even,’ and, ‘I have a d*** and it works. Everyone can go cry about it.’
Days earlier, on the day Kezia left with the boys, the couple had traded texts. Schaffer’s own lawyers later filed them in court, arguing she had wrongly kept the boys from him.
‘Elijah, because of recent escalations I’m going to be taking a mental health break with the kids over the next few days,’ Kezia wrote at 2.31pm on January 31, according to screenshots attached to his filing.
‘You are LEGALLY NOT allowed to do that,’ he replied. ‘I’m COMING to pick up the kids at 3:30 and will have them back before 6.’
Then: ‘DO NOT INTERFERE with my time with them.’ Then: ‘Your family must CEASE ALL ILLEGAL AND HARASSING ACTIVITY. Have the children available.’ Then: ‘PLEASE CONFIRM.’
‘We are not at home right now,’ Kezia wrote back.
Earlier that morning he had written: ‘This is parental abuse. You are NOW an abuser BY USING OUR CHILDREN AS PAWNS.’ The screenshots show her number saved in his phone as ‘Kez My Love.’
Kezia Schaffer with one of her children in Sydney, Australia
Sarah Stock (second from left) with Elijah Schaffer (far right) and their friends in a social media post from March 2025
His messages accused her of involvement in ‘an international felony spanning across Serbia, Germany, Mexico, Canada and Australia,’ according to Kezia’s February declaration.
He named her as the main suspect in the theft of his car and said he would take her off the suspect list if she called him and denied it, she stated in the declaration. ‘These messages have continued for days now,’ she wrote.
He called police to carry out welfare checks on her at least twice over a few weeks, she stated in her declaration, and told her he had filed a missing persons report after she told him she and the boys were safe.
Schaffer ‘repeatedly called me “evil” and accused me of being a witch and practicing witchcraft,’ Kezia stated in the declaration, adding: ‘I am a devout Christian.’
His texts ‘increase in hostility and accusations then pivot dramatically to declarations of love and care before the cycle starts again,’ she added in the declaration.
Schaffer denied her account in an affidavit sworn on March 30 and filed with his bid to overturn the default ruling. He said her testimony in February was ‘misleading, taken out of context, misinformation, and, in most instances, simply not truthful.’
Kezia ‘never feared me being alone with our kids,’ Schaffer stated in the affidavit, and had given him a Father’s Day card in 2025 calling him the ‘best dad’ on earth.
Kezia used the default order ‘to flee the United States’ with the boys around March 12, his lawyers stated in a motion filed March 31.
Schaffer’s August 13 counter-petition accuses Kezia of ‘extreme and outrageous conduct’ that caused him ‘severe emotional distress’ and cost him past earnings and future earning capacity.
It also accuses her of intruding on his privacy and interfering with his business relationships and contracts, and asks the court to decide whether there is a ‘risk of international abduction of the children’ by her.
The filing states he seeks between $250,000 and $1 million, a bracket Texas pleading rules require, without naming a figure.
Photos of prescription drug containers entered as evidence in court show the antipsychotic quetiapine, the antidepressant escitalopram and the sleeping pill eszopiclone
Photos of prescription labels entered as evidence in court
Text message exchanges between the Schaffers show Elijah demanding to his see his children
A text exchange where Schaffer appears to suggest that she is involved in criminality
A message between Keziah and Schaffer where they discuss visitation of his children
Schaffer pleads to see his children in a message to Keziah in February
After Schaffer told his followers that his wife and kids were missing, the friend who spoke to the Daily Mail texted to check if she was safe.
Kezia replied: ‘I’m okay, but I’m dead inside.’
The friend said she did not believe Schaffer had ever been physically violent with Kezia, though in her view he appears to be ‘very manipulative.’
Photos of prescription labels entered as evidence in court show medications filled in Schaffer’s name in December, including the antipsychotic quetiapine, the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam (Xanax), the antidepressant escitalopram and the sleeping pill eszopiclone.
Schaffer stated in his March 30 affidavit that he saw a psychiatrist for insomnia at Kezia’s suggestion and that the Xanax was ‘prescribed to address heart palpitations.’
He also swore that he stopped drinking ‘even casually’ about four months before the divorce was filed, that ‘I am not a drug user’ and that he has ‘never been diagnosed as being mentally ill.’
Kezia told a Denton County judge under oath on February 19 that she feared for the boys’ safety around him. Schaffer did not attend the hearing.
Asked if she was ‘concerned about the safety of your children being around your husband,’ she replied: ‘Yes, sir.’
Her lawyer, John Pfister, then asked whether one of her concerns was online material ‘quoting him, admitting that he abused a child when he was a youth pastor.’ The material was entered as an exhibit the Daily Mail has not seen.
‘Yes, a boy child. Yes,’ Kezia replied, adding moments later: ‘A 16-year-old boy. Yes, sir.’ Schaffer was not there to challenge the claim, which has never been tested in court.
Asked whether she had done ‘everything you can to not let him be alone with these kids,’ she said: ‘Yes, sir.’
She also told the judge Schaffer had told her he made ‘like 500,000 a year,’ and agreed she had been ‘cut off of all funds’ and was being supported solely by her parents in Australia.
Her lawyer told the judge her parents had paid his retainer.
Their eldest child was born in Tweed Heads, Australia, in March 2023 and the other in October 2024 in Boca Raton, Florida, where they lived at the time
Schaffer swore in his March affidavit that the funds claim was ‘not true’ and said she knew his employment had been terminated after a dossier about him was published.
Schaffer stated in the same affidavit: ‘I do not make money from social media,’ describing himself as running a media company and working as a talent manager and GOP lobbyist.
He is still living in the Frisco house he rents for $3,600 a month, according to a lease filed in court, and has asked the judge to give him exclusive use of it while the divorce is pending.
He has cast himself online as a father fighting for his children, writing in February that the more his enemies tried to undermine him, ‘the more I become dedicated to fight for my boys.’
The court found that ‘credible evidence has been presented for Elijah Schaffer to only have supervised possession of the children,’ according to temporary orders signed on April 30.
The orders stem from the February hearing he missed but were signed after the default was thrown out.
They cap his visits at two hours once a week through a court-approved agency, with Schaffer paying the full cost. The boys also get a weekly phone call with him, the family friend told the Daily Mail.
The same orders let Kezia keep her address from him ‘due to safety concerns’ and require him to take a drug test and undergo a psychological evaluation at his expense.
Despite everything, the source close to the family told the Daily Mail, Kezia is in ‘pretty good spirits,’ adding: ‘I think she’s taking the perspective that if you don’t laugh you’ll cry.’
His bid for joint custody has no hearing date. At the last setting, on September 25, the lawyers agreed that the psychological evaluation already ordered would also serve as a child custody evaluation, with Schaffer paying for it.
Schaffer must appear in person before Judge Bruce McFarling on November 5 to answer Kezia’s motion to hold him in contempt for failing to pay the child support and $7,500 in legal fees ordered in April.
The motion asks that he be jailed for up to 180 days and fined up to $500 for each missed payment, then held until he pays.
Schaffer and his lawyer Daniel Dower did not respond to a request for comment.
Kezia declined to comment.
