The Truth About Alix Earle's Parents, Alisa And Thomas
Anyone who's kept tabs on Alix Earle's career — whether it's through her viral "Get Ready with Me" videos, her candid interviews on the likes of "The Howard Stern Show," or the "Hot Mess" podcast, which once usurped "The Joe Rogan Experience" as America's most popular — will feel like they know just as much about the "It Girl's" parents as they do the "It Girl" herself.
The social media personality — who's so influential she's had an effect named after her — has often spoken about the relationships she has with her mother, Alisa Maniaci, and father, Thomas "TJ" Earle, in public, not to mention the relationship the divorced pair have with each other. And there's been a lot to talk about, too, with the former couple's story journeying from college romance to tabloid-friendly national scandal to blended family. Here's a look at the pairing, who, thanks to their daughter's open-book approach, have become mini-celebrities in their own right.
Thomas and Alisa met at university
Alisa and Thomas Earle's eventful love story began back in the early 1990s at one of Boca Raton's premier educational establishments, Lynn University. Both were studying for degrees at the time, the former in marketing and the latter in business administration. But only one immediately made use of their qualifications following their graduation.
While Alisa concentrated on becoming a stay-at-home mother, Thomas started working his way up the ranks of the family business, which specializes in construction materials and civil contracting for highways. He's now the president of the company, which has been running for more than half a century.
According to Thomas' LinkedIn page, his main duties are the "executive management of the asphalt and aggregates, environmental, and trucking business units" and leading "a team of division managers responsible for the day-to-day operations of the various divisions and departments within my primary business units." Thomas also served three terms as President of the New Jersey Asphalt Pavement Association and is now the treasurer of the same organization.
They were creatures of habit
Soon after graduating from Boca Raton's Lynn University, Thomas and Alisa Earle decided to cement their college romance by saying, "I do." And within a few years they'd also become parents, with Alix arriving just before Christmas in 2000, and Ashtin, now a psychology student at Louisiana's Tulane University, three years later.
In an interview with the New York Post, an old friend of Thomas revealed how much the one-time party animal had been tamed since the pair got together: "The second he laid eyes on Alisa, those [wild] days were over," they said, also recalling how the marketing student was seeing a soccer player before being swept off her feet by Thomas. "He was infatuated with Alisa the second they met, and I don't think that has changed," the unnamed source added.
The pair appeared to be creatures of habit, too, celebrating each wedding anniversary at the same hotel, the Gramercy in New York. Unfortunately, this was also the same place where their marriage came crashing down, and in the most public way imaginable.
Thomas was at the center of a tabloid scandal
Thomas Earle found himself at the center of a tabloid scandal in 2008 when his extramarital affair was made public. And the ex-call girl who he'd been seeing was certainly no stranger to making headlines. In fact, earlier that same year, Ashley Dupré was named as the escort that Eliot Spitzer, then the governor of New York, had used taxpayers' money to hire. Following the FBI investigation into the matter, Spitzer resigned from his post and was hit with divorce papers from his wife.
Earle's private life was also raked over once the New York Post reported he'd been intimate with Dupré at the Gramercy Hotel in New York. "I'm very ashamed," the construction boss told the newspaper via attorney Mitchell Ansell. The latter then added, "TJ made a grave mistake. He's very, very sorry for what happened, and he's trying to work through this privately."
Although she wasn't aware of the specific circumstances at the time, daughter Alix Earle does remember how her family life was suddenly ambushed, as she explained on Alex Cooper's podcast "Call Her Daddy." "I remember the day very clearly. 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. We stayed there for a few days, and I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know they were paparazzi. I thought news broadcasters were interviewing the neighbors."
They divorced three years after Thomas' affair
Thomas and Alisa Earle decided to call it a day in 2008 after the former's affair with ex-call girl Ashley Dupré came to light. But it wasn't exactly a straightforward split. Indeed, they only officially divorced three years later, and they decided to keep the reason a secret from their young daughters for a similar length of time, too.
While guesting on the episode of "Call Her Daddy," Alix Earle revealed that as a second grader, she was shielded from all the tabloid intrusion: "I didn't know the severity of what had happened between my parents because my mom was super, super mature about it and didn't speak to us about it and didn't put that stress that she was going through onto us."
Alix eventually found out about her father's affair in fourth grade while surfing the web. She recalled, "I started to kind of hear commentary from people, and I had an iPad at the time, and I remember Google ... like you don't know that many people, I'm googling my family and all of a sudden I see that the past two years of my life had been a lie. I had been reading articles about what had happened, about the times my dad has taken me to go get ice cream, and it's really because there's paparazzi outside my house, and he's hiding us from them. I felt like my world crashed down in that moment."
Alisa was often snubbed by other parents
Not only did Alisa Earle have to deal with the betrayal of her adulterous husband when news broke of Thomas Earle's affair with ex-call girl Ashley Dupré, the interference in her private life by the scandal-hungry tabloids, and the process of shielding all the drama from her children. She also had to deal with some incredibly judgmental parents.
During her guest appearance on "Call Her Daddy," daughter Alix Earle revealed that she was often denied playdates due to the concerns of her friends' mothers and fathers. "She would have to sit me down and be like, 'They don't really respect us,'" the influencer recalled one particular conversation with her mom about the snubbing.
When asked how she felt about such parental honesty, Alix answered, "I feel bad for her, but I feel like I wish I had someone to kind of lean on in that moment. I feel like I was leaning on myself a lot of the time because I didn't want to stress anyone else out. And I was trying to look out for everyone else, maybe, but myself in the time. So, I was just like, 'Okay, we're just going to bottle this up and not talk about it.'"
Thomas married the woman he had an affair with
Thomas Earle didn't waste any time in getting hitched again after divorcing Alisa in 2011. Just two years later, the construction company manager walked down the aisle with Ashley Dupré, the 'other woman' in the affair that had caused the breakdown of his previous marriage.
Thomas and Ashley have since welcomed three children into the world: Izabel, Penelope, and Thomas. Alix Earle's TikTok followers may well have spotted all three in the influencer's videos over the years, with the two girls regularly popping up in the background of her makeup tutorials. And it seems as though Izabel, in particular, shares her oldest half-sister's level of sass.
While appearing on "Call Her Daddy," Izabel let listeners in on a secret about Alix: "You guys might see the 'Get Ready with Me's,' but I see behind the scenes. And it's a hot mess," Alix said. Penelope, meanwhile, has revealed ambitions to move to Miami with the "Hot Mess" host when she's older. Thomas, on the other hand, is simply happy that Alix will play with his collection of toy dinosaurs! "I love just hanging out with my family and bantering with them, having dinner," Alix said. "You'll get to see, but everything is very chaotic over here, and there's always a lot going on."
Everything is now amicable
Although they split in dramatic, tabloid-friendly circumstances, Thomas and Alisa Earle certainly don't appear to be at loggerheads anymore. In fact, the latter will quite happily spend time with both her ex-husband and his new wife, as daughter Alix Earle revealed during an interview with Elle.
"We definitely have a very modern family," the influencer said. "It's normal for me to have my dad, my mom, and my stepmom all going on the same trips." And this can include everything from meals in the Hamptons to nights out in the Big Apple, as many of Alix's TikTok followers will already be aware.
The "Hot Mess" host also revealed how lucky she feels about the whole situation during her appearance on "Call Her Daddy." "Now that my family is so well blended and they get along so well, I get to do all these events in my life where it's my mom, my dad, my little siblings, and my stepmom," she explained. "It's a new feeling because it's a different type of family to me, but having my mom around with my dad, it's just that feeling is the best feeling in the entire world."
Alisa has used her fame for good
After spending most of her adult life as a stay-at-home mom, Alisa Earle may have had to deal with empty nest syndrome once daughters Alisa and Ashtin began making their own grown-up lives. Perhaps to combat this, the Lynn University graduate has thrown herself into various charitable endeavors.
In recent years, Alisa has given her time to the Meridian Health Hospitals of New Jersey and, perhaps most notably, the C.H.A.S.E. for Life Foundation. Launched in 2005, the organization is designed to significantly reduce the number of accidental deaths by teaching everything from choking methods to child CPR.
But Alisa has also found time to join the social media revolution. In fact, thanks to a little help from eldest daughter Alix — the pair have often shared screen time enjoying vacations, sleepovers, and dance routines together — she's now amassed a TikTok following of more than 70,000! Additionally, many find it hard to believe how youthful she looks, including "The Bachelor" contestant Rachael Kirkconnell, who commented on one particular video of the pair (via the Daily Mail), "Dying at your sister I mean mom haha." Speaking on the "Call Her Daddy" episode her daughter was featured on, Alisa said, "I believe Alix got her craziness, kindness, and her energy for having fun from me ... and all the other good stuff from her dad."