Ashley Earle, formerly known as Ashley Dupre, has spoken publicly about her time as an escort, including the encounter with former New York governor Eliot Spitzer that preceded his resignation.
Earle, who is Alix Earle’s stepmother, described her experiences in a piece for Elle, saying she was approached at 19 while working as a cocktail waitress and told she could earn 1,000 dollars an hour by going on dates with high-profile men.
“My first answer was no, but I kept his card,” she wrote. She later contacted the man, saying she wanted financial independence.
Earle said she spent two years working as an escort without anyone in her life knowing. She said the FBI eventually showed her a photograph of Spitzer, whom she identified as a client.
“I didn’t know who he was. When they told me he was the governor of New York, I couldn’t begin to understand what was about to happen,” she wrote.
Her stage name and photograph soon appeared in the tabloids. Earle said she had moved to New York wanting to be noticed, but became known for something she had hoped to keep private.
She initially wanted to explain her identity and provide context for how she was being portrayed. However, she said she no longer believes that explanation should define her.
“Context isn’t absolution. I made choices. Some were reckless. Some were selfish. They had consequences. I can own all of that without believing those choices have to be the most interesting thing about me forever,” Earle wrote.
Earle also addressed her relationship with Alix’s father, TJ, saying they met a few months after the scandal and that he was married at the time. She said they “crossed a line we shouldn’t have crossed”.
She acknowledged hurting Alix, her sister Ashtin and their mother, Alisa, while maintaining that her life with TJ is “deeply meaningful”.
“I can acknowledge that the way our relationship began was complicated and caused pain without letting that define everything that came after it. Both things can exist at once,” she wrote.
