At the same time Ashley Dupre found out her “Client 9” was the governor of New York, her mom and stepdad were reeling from the news their little girl was a hooker, the former Emperor’s Club call girl reveals in a new interview.
PEYSER: Sorry Excuse For A Husband
POP VIDEO QUIZ: Ashley Dupre and Other Scandals
And while friends were telling her mom to kick her out, stepfather Michael DiPietro was “disgusted” to learn that Dupre not only was a prostitute, but also the same hooker whose tryst with then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer destroyed his political career, Dupre has revealed.
“[DiPietro] was so disgusted with me when everything happened” that he would not even look at Dupre or hug her for some time afterward, she told ABC News’ “20/20” in an interview airing tomorrow night.
But “now it’s . . . getting better. And we’re working on our relationship,” Dupre, 23, says about her 57-year-old stepfather, who is an oral surgeon.
Dupre said her mom, Carolyn Capalbo, resisted calls from others to shun her wayward daughter, who had taken refuge at Capalbo’s New Jersey home after news of her tryst with Spitzer broke last winter.
“So many people told her to kick me out,” Dupre told ABC’s Diane Sawyer. “You know . . . ‘Why are you taking her in?’ And my mom’s response is, ‘She’s a piece of me. How can you just throw it out?’ ”
Meanwhile, sources close to Spitzer’s wife, Silda, told The Post that the Spitzers were rocked yesterday by Dupre’s earlier comments to People magazine about being “sorry” for hurting Silda by servicing her husband.
“It’s a bad day for them,” a friend of the Manhattan couple told The Post, whose front page yesterday trumpeted the headline, “Sorry, Silda,” next to a photo of the young vixen Dupre.
“I think of her face, her eyes, that hurt,” Dupre told People in an interview that hits newsstands tomorrow, about seeing a sad Silda on TV as Spitzer resigned as governor last winter because of his adultery with the buxom brunette.
Dupre also said that if she could speak directly to Silda, she would say, “I’m sorry for your pain.”
Another friend said that the Spitzers repeatedly have been upset by continued stories about Dupre and her tryst with Eliot in February in a Washington hotel room, and about Eliot’s other dalliances with hookers.
Dupre said that when she hooked up with Spitzer, “He looked familiar, [but] I didn’t know who he was.”
She said she was stunned to learn who he was by watching television to see Spitzer admitting a mistake involving a “private matter” – after news broke that he used the services of the Emperors Club VIP escort service for which Dupre worked.
“I didn’t know the depth of my situation,” she said, describing watching Spitzer on TV with his wife. “That’s when I connected the dots, was when everyone else found out. I turned on the TV and I said, ‘Oh s- – -, what did I get myself involved in?’ ”
Dupre told ABC she intends to pursue her long-dreamed-of singing career.
“I want to go after my music and do what I love. And not lose track of who I am on the way,” Dupre said.