Alix Earle's Tragic Real-Life Story

The following article contains references to disordered eating. 

TikTok has created a whole new wave of social media personalities, like singer Nessa Barrett, star Ashley Elliott, and, of course, Alix Earle. Earle skyrocketed to fame in 2022 and her star hasn't stopped rising. As of this writing, she has over 7 million TikTok followers and nearly 4 million Instagram followers. She also hosts a successful podcast, "Hot Mess with Alix Earle." The Gen Z star seems to be unstoppable, having gained a following from her candid and relatable videos in which she's not afraid to discuss her personal life and all the drama that comes with it. 

Nevertheless, even her most devoted fans may not know all the facts about the TikTok Star. While Earle may not be afraid to bare her soul, it's easy to focus solely on the glamorous side of her life, as social media only allows us a curated glimpse. While the internet celebrity is privileged in many ways, she's also had her own challenges and tragedies to overcome. 

In 2008, Alix Earle's life and family changed forever when news broke of her father's extramarital affair. Alix's father, Thomas "TJ" Earle, was cheating on her mother with Ashley Dupré, a sex worker who was at the center of a scandal with the former governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who resigned due to the scandal. 

Speaking with "Call Her Daddy" host Alex Cooper in 2023, Alix shared what an impactful experience this was for her. She was just a kid when news broke of her father's affair. "I remember the day very clearly," she revealed on the Season 4 premiere episode of the podcast. "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." Confused by some of the comments she heard people making, the fourth-grader started conducting her own research. "I'm Googling my family and all of a sudden, I see that the past two years of my life had been a lie," she said. She went on to explain that due to the woman's earlier scandal, her "dad's affair became a very public situation."

Even years after the news of her father's affair broke, Alix was still dealing with the public embarrassment surrounding it. "My teacher in high school was talking about this governor's affair and said exactly what had happened — who it had happened with — and looked me in the eyes while this was going on in class," she told Cooper, recalling how upset and humiliated she felt since everyone in the class knew about her father's involvement. 

After his affair with Ashley Dupré, Alix Earle's father and mother divorced. On "Call Her Daddy," Earle said their family didn't discuss what happened for a long time, but it was confusing for her to deal with, particularly once Dupré, who would eventually become her stepmom, started spending more time around her. "I was told that I had to be respectful to this woman and we had to be nice to her. I wanted to rip her head off," she admitted. "It was very weird because I felt like I was a 10-year-old having to be more mature than someone 20, 30 years older than me."

According to Earle, this was a very lonely time, and she wished she had someone to lean on and talk to. Instead, she felt the need to bottle it up for the sake of her family. "I obviously felt a lot of emotion, and I was super upset, and I couldn't let that out," Earle said. 

These days, Earle's relationships with her family are better. Her parents are friendly with each other — even if it's not the same as it was when she was a kid. On "Hot Mess with Alix Earle," she encouraged anyone going through a family divorce that things could get better. "I promise you, you still have your family. ... It took many, many years for my family to come together and be okay."

In a very vulnerable episode of her podcast, "Hot Mess with Alix Earle," the content creator spoke about her past struggles with an eating disorder. She said she'd always had a healthy relationship with food growing up, but mindset shifted in her sophomore year of high school as she saw her friends trying extreme forms of dietings. "I knew that this wasn't normal at first, but after watching their habits and watching them lose weight and watching them be so satisfied over this, it became more normalized for me," she said. 

In that environment, Earle began to restrict her own eating. "I was just so obsessed with this dieting culture. I just went down such a bad path with myself and my body and my image, and I started to have this sort of body dysmorphia," she explained. Restricting her food so much during the day led to her binging food at night, which she would then purge, feeding into what she called a "toxic cycle." 

Earle credits the friends she made in college for helping her heal her relationship with food. They noticed her unhealthy habits and encouraged her to be kinder to herself. "I was just so appreciative at the fact that I had girls telling me that, like, it was OK to eat, and we weren't all going to be competing with our bodies," Earle said. 

If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

Alix Earle has been very open about struggling with anxiety and panic attacks. On an episode of "Hot Mess with Alix Earle," the TikTok star detailed the start of her anxiety, saying her stepmom took her to get her hair done before her freshman year of high school. While at the salon, she passed out from what she believes was a combination of being overheated and hungry. Fortunately, she wasn't hurt, but this triggered a consistent anxiety about passing out. She began having constant anxious thoughts that she would faint, saying she was even scared to stand for the pledge of allegiance during class in case it happened again. 

Her anxiety surrounding her health led to panic attacks. At first she didn't know what was happening and her parents took her to the hospital thinking she was sick. Eventually, she was diagnosed with generalized anxiety, but she was reluctant to take medication for treatment. Since then, Earle has made a lot of progress. She is on medication to treat her anxiety and has learned how to cope with her panic attacks. 

In a 2023 Tiktok video, Earle shared with her followers a photo of her having a panic attack in the bathroom at the U.S. Open. She also shared some of her biggest tips for dealing with anxiety, which include letting someone know what you're going through in case you need help and finding a quiet place to practice breathing exercises and other techniques to calm your nervous system. 

Alix Earle is an incredibly popular social media influencer known for being beautiful; however, she's struggled with acne and her self-worth due to having acne. Today, Earle is open about her journey and is passionate about normalizing less-than-perfect skin. But when Earle first started sharing her skin breakouts on social media, she was terrified to do it.

"This time last year, I would cry probably three times a day. I did not want to leave my house. It's also painful, like your face hurts, and my self-esteem was like negative 1,000," Earle said in a TikTok video showing unfiltered photos of her skin, which were taken a year earlier. She encouraged any viewers struggling with acne that it is totally normal.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the TikToker explained that while sharing her experience was scary, it led to her building a loyal following of people who related to her. "I did not want to post my acne all over my face and my neck and then go to school and know that probably everyone I'm sitting next to me saw this on the internet, but it honestly was so overwhelmingly positive," she said. She's had many fans reach out about their own experiences and is happy her vulnerability has helped. 

Although many parts of Alix Earle's college experience were rewarding, her sorority recruitment was a "nightmare," she shared on "Hot Mess." The internet star attended the University of Miami, the same school her cousin attended. And much like her cousin, she wanted to be in a sorority. Earle described being stressed during rush week — a period of time in which new students bid to get into sororities, and the sorority houses select the members they want. Her anxiety was through the roof, which only made the process more difficult for her. 

After her top two houses rejected her, Earle said she was a mess. The rejection hurt her self-confidence and made her wonder what was wrong with her. She remembered wondering, "'Am I not good enough? Am I not pretty enough? Do I not know how to hold a conversation? Am I annoying or am I weird? Every possible negative thought was running through my head." She was especially self-conscious because her friends were accepted into the sororities that had rejected her.

"This was the end of my social life, me having friends, and me having a good time at the University of Miami," she recalled thinking at the time. She did eventually join another sorority at the school, and looking back she said she feels it wasn't right to think of some sororities as "cool" and some not. She encouraged her fans to go in with a better attitude. 

Alix Earle leads a lavish lifestyle with millions of followers, designer clothes, and many brand deals. While it's easy to think the rich and famous don't have any of the same problems we do, they can get ripped off just like anyone else. Earle was a prime example of that when she and her friends got scammed on vacation. When the social media star went on a three-week trip to Europe with her friends, not everything went according to plan.

The group had booked and paid for a place to stay in Positano, Italy. However, when they arrived, they could not find the building. Earle described trying to find their lodging in the middle of the night. "We're looking up this address, and we're like, 'I don't think this address exists,'" she revealed on "Hot Mess with Alix Earle." One of the women in the group had flown in early and the address took her to an empty field instead of the beautiful house they thought they booked. Earle and the rest of the group ended up being stranded at the airport until they found a hotel to spend the night.

Because she posted about the experience on her TikTok, Airbnb reached out to her to offer a place for her and her friends to stay the rest of the trip. Because of this, some accused Earle of orchestrating the whole thing. However, she confirmed, "I'm just here to say that was not a stunt at all. ... We actually were stranded in Positano."

In 2023, Alix Earle started dating NFL star Braxton Berrios. The pair were first seen together following Berrios split from his girlfriend, Sophia Culpo. At the start of the relationship, fans began to question if Berrios and Earle had actually gotten together before Berrios and Culpo broke up. The rumors gained attention as Culpo dropped hints that Berrios had been unfaithful on her social media platforms. Culpo even enlisted an NFL insider to expose Berrios for cheating. This led many to believe Berrios had indeed cheated with Earle, and the TikTok star received plenty of comments accusing her of breaking up the couple. 

Talking about the hurtful gossip on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, Earle told host Alex Cooper that she found these rumors very upsetting due to her family history with infidelity. "I spent my childhood thinking this is basically the worst thing you could do to another human, so why the f**** would I do that?" she said in an emotional response. Earle also assured Cooper that she asked Berrios for proof that his former relationship ended before they started hanging out. "If I did that to someone else," she said, "I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Although Alix Earle has denied rumors of being the other woman, she has experienced being cheated on. In fact, her very first boyfriend cheated on her, she revealed in an episode of "Hot Mess with Alix Earle." While on a family vacation with her former boyfriend's family, she had repeated nightmares that he was cheating on her with his ex. Although Earle explained that she really had no reason to believe anything was happening with her partner's ex, the dream prompted her to look through her then-boyfriend's phone while he was sleeping. In doing so, she discovered that he'd been texting his ex for months and even exchanging some NSFW photos with her. 

Earle recalled how sick the experience made her feel. "I'm sitting here scrolling and seeing this all, and I was like, 'Oh my god, oh my god, he's telling her he loves her,' and I'm like, 'What? This is my boyfriend!'" Earle revealed. She was particularly shocked and hurt to see that he'd been sending texts saying he loved and missed his ex on Earle's birthday. "The pit in my stomach ... I felt like I was going to pass out, throw up, die," she said.

At the start of her social media career, Alix Earle was in a relationship with professional baseball player Tyler Wade. After the couple broke up, she revealed the news in a TikTok Live and candidly shared some negative details about their relationship. However, she didn't quite phrase things clearly, and the message many took away was that she broke up with Wade because he wouldn't post her on Instagram. 

About a year later, Earle sat down on her "Hot Mess" podcast to set the record straight, explaining the real reason they split was due to Wade not supporting her. "He was really, really nice at first," she said, and she was starstruck by dating a professional athlete. However, as things progressed between the two of them, she spotted many red flags and dubbed the relationship "toxic." As she started to experience more success on social media, he began treating her differently. "For some reason, that just sent him spiraling," she said. "That was just not okay for him."

She went on to detail times that she would come over to spend time with him only to receive the silent treatment. "We would literally sit there in silence and ... I would pick up my phone to take a picture [and] he would scream at me," she revealed. All of this contributed to Earle calling it quits with Wade after just a few months.