Scandalous true story behind Alix Earle's step-mum and father's very public affair that broke their family up
Long before Alix Earle became the internet's 'It girl', her family was at the centre of a scandal that made headlines across the US
And now, almost two decades later, the whole family is opening up about the affair that changed their lives forever for the very first time.
The bombshell comes courtesy of the social media star's brand-new Netflix reality series, Earle Meets World, where her famously complicated family sits down for confessionals and discusses the affair between her dad, TJ Earle, and her now-stepmum, Ashley Dupré.
And while the affair itself is very much not 'new news', the fact that Alix, her sister Ashtin, TJ and Ashley, and their mother Alisa are now discussing it so openly is the real revelation.
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"We met by chance at a bar," TJ begins in a confessional. "I was married at the time. I was in a hotel in New York with Ashley.
"The New York Post had gotten a picture of us because they noticed who Ashley was. It was a shocking mess."
If you're already lost, worry not. The 'who Ashley was' part is pretty important here.
Before she became Alix Earle's stepmum, Ashley was already a name splashed across the front pages.
She was known publicly as part of the scandal involving former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, after being identified as an escort.
Ashley herself reflects on that period in the documentary, explaining: "People know me from front page of the New York Post - Elliot Spitzer, a very big scandal. I was cocktail waitressing, and somebody came up to me and said, 'Hey, you know, you can make a thousand dollars an hour by going on dates with high-profile people'.
"I always thought it could be my secret forever, and here we are."
And then TJ came along.
His affair with Ashley behind wife Alisa's back was exposed in 2008, with photographs of the pair splashed across magazines that were distributed across the country.
It became an enormous public scandal for the family, with Alix and her sister Ashtin caught up in the fallout while they were still children.
"It was a huge violation, and it was in the public eye, which made it, you know, more difficult," Alisa recalls in her own confessional.
For Alix, the memories are particularly surreal.
"There were paparazzi following us when, like, we were going to get ice cream with my dad," she remembers.
The attention was so relentless that even ordinary family outings suddenly felt like front-page material.
"He would be like, 'You look good on the cover of The Post'," Alisa jokes. "I'm like, 'Oh, thank you, but I don't want to be on the cover of The Post side-by-side with someone who had an affair with my husband."
As Ashley became a permanent part of TJ's life, the situation was hardly going to be straightforward for his daughters.
"We were really reluctant to have a new step-mom and a new girl in our lives, obviously," Ashtin admits.
And Alix's response to her dad's new partner was, well, slightly more chaotic.
"I would put toothpaste in her shoes," she says with a smile.
Honestly, considering the circumstances, it's difficult to blame her - even TJ admits that repairing the fractured family dynamic wasn't exactly instant.
"It took a lot to come back from," he says.
TJ and Alisa eventually divorced, and in 2013, he married Ashley, with the going on to have three children of their own together, meaning Alix and Ashtin also gained younger half-siblings.
But perhaps the most unexpected part of the story is what happened next.
Because despite everything, Alisa and Ashley eventually developed a relationship of their own - one that has become considerably closer over the years.
"It slowly developed from when Isabelle [one of TJ and Ashley's children] was born, you know? Just caring for each other's children," Alisa explains. "You don't forget what happened, but it doesn't mean we all can't get along and enjoy the people that we love."
And even Ashtin admits that the family has changed dramatically since those early years.
They've "all grown closer as a family", she says.
It's probably worth noting that this isn't the first time Alix has addressed her dad's affair in public.
In 2023, she opened up about the experience during a guest appearance on the much-loved Call Her Daddy podcast, explaining that her mum had deliberately shielded her and Ashtin from the worst of what was happening.
Alix said at the time that she didn't initially understand the 'severity' of the situation, and that Alisa never put the burden of what she was going through onto her daughters. Instead, Alix said, she eventually pieced things together herself.
She has also previously described her family as 'very modern', explaining that she now has a close relationship with both parents and Ashley.
Topics: Celebrity, Netflix, Reality TV, US News, Documentaries
Rhianna Benson