Alix and Ashtin Earle Open Up About Initial Hostility Towards Stepmom Ashley Dupré, Say It Took 'Years of Fighting’ to Become a Blended Family

Mar. 15, 2025

Thomas “TJ” Earle, Alix Earle and Ashley Dupré; Ashtin Earle, Alix Earle and Alisa Earle.Photo:Alexander Tamargo/Getty, Alix Earle/TikTok

Alexander Tamargo/Getty, Alix Earle/TikTok

AlixandAshtin Earleare looking back on the highs, lows, heartbreaks and learning curves of growing up with divorced parents.

The influencer sisters teamed up to talk duringthe season 2 premiere episodeof theirHot Messpodcast, which Alix, 23, originally launched one year ago in September 2023. For their “hot topic” of this week’s episode, the co-hosts talked about how their parents' divorce impacted their childhood and how they eventually adjusted to a blended family.

“I feel like I needed my other half to talk about it because I feel like we went through everything together,” Alix said on the recent installment ofHot Mess, which is underAlex Cooper’s The Unwell Networkmedia platform. “I just feel like it’s better from both of our perspectives if we tell this story.”

The siblings were both born toAlisa and Thomas “TJ” Earle, who split when their daughters were in elementary school. In 2008, TJ was revealed to be having an affair with Ashley Dupré, who famously also had a sex scandal with the former governor of New York,Eliot Spitzer.

Now married, TJ and Ashleyshare three kids: Izabel, Penelope and Thomas James Earle II.

When TJ and Alisa initially split, Alix said she was much more aware of the breakup than her little sister was, and she tried to protect Ashtin from parts of the reality.

“I would hear Mom and Dad fighting … I would sit at the top of the stairs like a lurker, and I was like, ‘What’s going on down there?'” Alix reflected. “I never wanted Ashtin to know because I didn’t know much, but I knew that it made me feel upset when I heard them yelling at each other. So I would go in Ashtin’s room and be like, ‘Let’s play a game or let’s do something.'”

Both Ashtin and Alix remembered their initial hostility towards Dupré when their father first introduced them to each other. The podcasters said they showed minimal appreciation for Dupré’s gifts, excluded her from events and even played pranks on her, like filling her shoes with toothpaste and serving her a chocolate-covered garlic clove disguised as a chocolate-covered strawberry.

“We were little kids, and we didn’t wanna meet anyone. Like, I didn’t want my dad to ever be with anyone else ever,” Alix admitted. “We weren’t the best, but, I mean, I guess it took a while.”

Ashtin and Alix Earle.Ashtin Earle/Instagram

Ashtin Earle/Instagram

“My dad was driving us to school in the morning … and he turns around in the car,” Alix recalled. “He’s like, ‘Hey. So you know how Ashley and I took a trip to Paris last week?’ And we were like, ‘Yeah.’ And he’s like, ‘So, you know, we got married.'”

Ashtin clarified that TJ and Dupré didn’t elope; they just didn’t tell their kids about the wedding.

“Dad is like the worst person at confrontation or talking about his emotions or feelings or anything,” the Tulane University student said, though her older sister slightly disputed the claim. “Actually, he’s not bad at confrontation. It literally was just when it came to telling us anything,” Alix noted.

Alix and Ashtin Earle on the Sept. 26, 2024 episode of Hot Mess with Alix Earle.Hot Mess with Alix Earle/YouTube

Hot Mess with Alix Earle/YouTube

In the years since their divorce, the social media stars said TJ, Dupré, Alisa and her boyfriend have become friendly, and today they can all spend time together as a big extended family, even though that wasn’t always the case.

“We’re like really lucky with how our parents were able to like coexist,” said Ashtin. “The way mom handled it, she was like really good about it for us in that sense. I feel like she could’ve been like, ‘Oh, I hate your dad.’ I know so many people now that have divorced parents that will pit their kids against … the other parent and make them choose sides and make them fight.”

Alix added, “I don’t want people to think that … our parents got divorced and we were like, ‘Hey, we’re a big perfect family,’ because it was like years and years of us fighting and hashing it out to get to this point that we’re at, and I’m very grateful that we’re here.”

source: people.com