MIAMI, FLORIDA: Influencer Alix Earle opens up about the shocking discovery of her father's affair and the impact on her family.
In a recent episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, TikTok sensation Alix Earle took a trip down memory lane, recounting a harrowing incident that forever altered her family's life.
The year was 2008 when Alix, just a young child, found herself at the center of a media maelstrom that she couldn't comprehend at the time.
Her father Thomas 'TJ' Earle had an affair with her now-stepmom Ashley Dupre, who at the time had recently been involved in the sex scandal with then-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
Alix Earle recounts family's turbulent past
During the episode of Call Her Daddy on September 20, Alix, recalling the experience, stated, "Paparazzi had shown up at my house, and my mom quickly kind of got me and my sister out of the house over to our cousins.
We stayed there for a few days, and I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know they were paparazzi. I thought news broadcasters were interviewing the neighbors."
Although Alix was too young to grasp the situation at the time, she was not able to understand why the media was suddenly interested in her family, eventually, she uncovered the painful truth about her family's past a few years later.
It was during her fourth-grade years, while surfing the internet on her iPad, that she stumbled upon a revelation that shattered her world. "I'm Googling my family, and all of a sudden, I see that the past two years of my life had been a lie," she said.
"It was in like fourth grade. I started to kind of hear commentary from people and I had an iPad at the time," she said. "I'm Googling my family and all of a sudden, I see that the past two years of my life had been a lie."
The 22-year-old continued, "My dad had an affair with someone who was well-known for her job having sexual relations with high-class people and one of them was even the governor of New York. She was very well-known from that and in turn, my dad's affair became a very public situation."
The moment Alix found out what had happened, she "felt like my world crashed down in that moment."
Alix gave credit to her mother, Alisa, for shielding her and her younger sister, Ashtin, from the tumultuous events unfolding within their family. "I didn't know the severity of what had happened between my parents because my mom was super, super mature about it and didn't speak to us about it and didn't put that stress that she was going through onto us," she noted. "I kind of figured it out myself and then I proceeded to deal with it myself."
Ultimately, Alisa and TJ separated, with TJ's relationship with Ashley eventually flourishing, culminating in their marriage in 2013.
Alix also shared the challenges she faced when her father's new partner, Ashley, became a part of the family.
She said, "When my stepmom started to hang around with my dad after he had moved out, she came into his life and we were introduced to her, which was super weird," Alix explained.
"And I was told that I had to be respectful to this woman and we had to be nice to her. I wanted to rip her head off. It was very weird because I felt like I was a 10-year-old having to be more mature than someone 20, 30 years older than me," said Alix.
Moreover, she had to deal with the ongoing fallout of the affair, as some kids were not allowed to come to her home because of it.
"The parents would kind of tell my mom and she would tell me kind of the harsh truth of why this can't happen," she said. "She would have to sit me down and be like, 'They don't really respect us," she added.
Alix also remembered the humiliation she experienced in class when her association with Ashley and Spitzer's sex scandal, led to her resignation in March 2008.
"My teacher in high school was talking about this governor's affair and said exactly what had happened—who it had happened with—and like looked me in the eyes while this was going on in class," the Hot Mess With Alix Earle podcast host said.
"I remember my classmates looking at me and like, laughing because this was about my family. And this was something he was literally teaching in history class," said Alix.
She added, "I left school bawling my eyes out. I was so embarrassed."
A rekindled relationship between Alix Earle and her stepmom
In August 2023, she told ELLE, "Whatever's happened in the past," she added, "we've all gotten past it as a family."
Alix has successfully surmounted these challenges. In fact, her family, which includes TJ and Ashley's children Izabel (10), Penelope (8), and Thomas (6), is now "well blended."
According to Alix, who added, "They get along so well."
She told ELLE she and her stepmom are "super close, and we've gotten to such a good point."
