Alix Earle’s dad, Thomas “TJ” Earle, is taking full responsibility for the demise of their family as they once knew it.
In the premiere episode of Netflix’s “Earle Meets World,” TJ candidly speaks about his headline-making affair with wife Ashley Earle, formerly known as Ashley Dupré, in 2008.
“I didn’t know what the f–k to do,” TJ, now 53, says in his confessional. “You have all these people around you [and] their whole world was blown up in a moment’s notice in a very public way.”
“It was all on me; it was all my fault.”
According to TJ, he and Ashley, now 41, met “by chance at a bar” while he was still married to his then-wife Alisa Earle, with whom he shares daughters Alix and Ashtin Earle.
Ashley had already garnered national media attention after an FBI investigation named her as an escort hired by former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer — a scandal that led to both his resignation from office and, eventually, his divorce.
In the family’s Netflix series, Ashley says she was working as a cocktail waitress when someone told her she could make “$1,000 an hour for going on dates with high-profile people.”
“I always thought it could be my secret forever,” she admits.
The same year the Spitzer scandal went public, TJ and Ashley were at “a hotel in New York” when the New York Post recognized her and snapped a photo of them together, outing their affair.
“That was a huge violation, and it was in the public eye, which made it more difficult,” Alisa shares in her confessional.
Alix, now 25, was in second grade at the time of her dad’s highly publicized cheating scandal.
“There were paparazzi following us when we were going to get ice cream with my dad,” she recalls, sharing that she would put “toothpaste” in Ashley’s shoes once she was introduced to the family as TJ’s girlfriend.
TJ and Ashley ultimately wed in 2013. The couple shares three children: daughters Izabel, 13, and Penelope, 11, and son Thomas, 9.
While TJ admits it “took a lot to come back” from the scandal, Alisa says the birth of her ex-husband’s kids helped rebuild the fractured relationships within their family.
“You don’t forget what happened,” she explains. “It doesn’t mean we can’t all get along and enjoy the people that we love.”
Alisa is currently dating New Jersey sales executive Todd Galski, who also appears in the series.
“Earle Meets World” is currently streaming on Netflix.
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