Ashley Dupré isn’t running from her "reckless" past anymore.
asserted
Dupré → run → past
Alix Earle’s stepmother opened up about the choices that once made her tabloid fodder, including her connection to the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal and her affair with the influencer’s married father.
asserted
her → open → father
Alix, 25, shot to fame on TikTok and has built a massive following by sharing her life online – including, at times, the complicated family history that played out in the tabloids when she was a child.
asserted
she → shoot → tabloids
Ashley was thrust into the national spotlight in 2008 when she was identified as an escort connected to then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in the prostitution scandal that preceded his resignation.
asserted
that → thrust → resignation
"At 19, while working as a cocktail waitress, a man approached me and told me I could make $1,000 an hour going on dates with high-profile men," she wrote in an essay for Elle.
uncertain
she → work → Elle
"My first answer was no, but I kept his card.
asserted
I → keep → card
Eventually, I made the call.
asserted
I → make → call
I could spend paragraphs explaining why.
uncertain
I → spend → paragraphs
I wanted money and independence.
asserted
I → want → money
I’d spent years operating in survival mode and had become very good at compartmentalizing.
asserted
I → spend → mode
But ultimately, I made the call.
asserted
I → make → call
According to Ashley, she managed the work for two years without anyone knowing.
uncertain
anyone → accord → years
"Then, when I was 22, the FBI knocked on my door and showed me a photograph of a man I had seen," she explained.
asserted
she → knock → man
"I didn’t know who he was.
asserted
he → know → ?
When they told me he was the governor of New York, I couldn’t begin to understand what was about to happen.
asserted
I → tell → what
What followed was a level of attention Ashley said she never could have anticipated.
uncertain
she → follow → attention
There was an almost ridiculous irony to it," she recalled.
asserted
she → be → it
"I had come to New York City wanting to be noticed, and suddenly everyone noticed me – for the one thing I never wanted anyone to know."
asserted
anyone → come → thing
Ashley said she can now look back at that period without minimizing the role she played.
asserted
she → say → role
I made choices.
asserted
I → make → choices
Some were reckless," she wrote.
asserted
she → write → ?
They had consequences.
asserted
They → have → consequences
I can own all of that without believing those choices have to be the most interesting thing about me forever."
asserted
choices → own → me
Ashley's affair with TJ hit the tabloids in 2008, months after she made headline news with the Spitzer scandal.
asserted
she → hit → scandal
The two had met by chance at a restaurant in New Jersey and things escalated from there.
asserted
things → meet → Jersey
"We talked for five or six hours, and our connection was immediate," Ashley recalled.
"
asserted
Ashley → talk → hours
TJ was married," she admitted.
asserted
she → marry → ?
"We crossed a line we shouldn’t have crossed, and I take responsibility for my part in that.
asserted
I → cross → that
Our choices affected and hurt other people, including his wife, Alisa, and daughters, Alix and Ashtin, and I don’t take that lightly."
asserted
I → affect → that
Alix was just a child when the affair turned her family life into tabloid news.
asserted
affair → turn → news
"I remember the day very clearly," Alix said on a 2023 episode of "Call Her Daddy."
asserted
Alix → remember → Daddy
"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.
asserted
mom → show → cousins
We stayed there for a few days and I had no idea what was going on.
asserted
what → stay → idea
I didn't know they were paparazzi.
asserted
they → know → ?
I thought news broadcasters were interviewing the neighbors.
asserted
broadcasters → think → neighbors
"
While Alix was too young to understand what was happening at the time, she later discovered who Ashley was.
asserted
Ashley → understand → time
"It was in like fourth grade," she told host Alex Cooper.
asserted
she → tell → Cooper
"I started to kind of hear commentary from people and I had an iPad at the time.
asserted
I → start → time
I'm Googling my family and, all of a sudden, I see that the past two years of my life had been a lie."
asserted
years → google → life
"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," Alix said.
asserted
Alix → have → York
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
