Ashley Dupré reflected on the painful beginning of her relationship with TJ Earle, admitting that she and the then-married businessman crossed a line when they became involved in 2008.
In a personal essay, Dupré took responsibility for the impact their relationship had on TJ’s then-wife, Alisa Earle, and his daughters, Alix Earle and Ashtin Earle. She also wrote about how her life changed after the Eliot Spitzer scandal and how she later became part of the Earle family.
Ashley Dupré reflects on beginning her relationship with married businessman Thomas ‘TJ’ Earle in 2008
Dupré told Elle she met Thomas Earle at the Parker House restaurant in New Jersey several months after the Spitzer scandal became public.
“We talked for five or six hours, and our connection was immediate,” she wrote.
At the time, TJ was still married.
Dupré did not attempt to minimize that fact.
“We crossed a line we shouldn’t have crossed, and I take responsibility for my part in that,” she wrote.
She also acknowledged that their decisions hurt other people.
“Our choices affected and hurt other people, including his wife, Alisa, and daughters, Alix and Ashtin, and I don’t take that lightly,” Dupré said.
Dupré later described some of her past choices as “reckless” and “selfish,” while arguing that those mistakes did not need to define her permanently.
Before meeting TJ, Dupré had already become nationally known because of her connection to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. She wrote that she had worked as an escort for two years before the FBI contacted her when she was 22.
Dupré said she had initially tried to explain the circumstances that led to those decisions. Over time, however, she stopped viewing context as an excuse.
“Context isn’t absolution,” she wrote. “I made choices. Some were reckless. Some were selfish. They had consequences.”
Dupré and TJ eventually married in 2013. She then became stepmother to Alix and Ashtin.
She admitted that those relationships did not become easy immediately, but said the family continued working through the tension over time.
Dupré also credited motherhood with changing how she viewed accountability, mistakes and public judgment.
Today, she said she accepted both the painful way her relationship with TJ began and the family they later built.
