Ashley Earle Tells Her Side: The Spitzer Scandal, Alix Earle's Dad, and Starting Over

Ashley Earle has spent nearly two decades being known for one chapter of her life. This week she rewrote the rest of it. In a new Elle essay, the 40-year-old opened up about being Ashley Dupré, the woman at the center of the 2008 Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal that ended the New York governor’s career. She writes about moving to New York at 22 for a music career, waitressing, and accepting offers to go on paid dates with high-profile men. In her words, that decision was hers.

The essay doesn’t stop at 2008. Months after the scandal broke, she met TJ Earle, the father of influencer Alix Earle, at a New Jersey restaurant. He was married at the time, and she says plainly that they crossed a line and that she takes responsibility for her part in it. TJ and his first wife Alisa later divorced, and he and Ashley married in 2013. She’s now stepmom to Alix and Ashtin Earle and mom to three more kids with TJ: Izabel, Penelope and Thomas.

What’s striking is how unglamorous she makes the aftermath sound. She describes building a blended family as slow, awkward and earned rather than automatic, all while the family steps further into the spotlight with Alix’s Netflix show, Earle Meets World. It’s a reminder that the people behind viral moments have whole histories we never bothered to ask about.

Do you think people can truly reinvent themselves after a public scandal, or does the internet never really let it go? Sound off in the comments.