The newspaper reports that she was born Ashley Youmans, but is now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre. She left a broken home in Belmar, New Jersey, at age 17 and came to New York City to try and break into the nightclub scene as a rhythm and blues singer, according to the paper.
Now 22, she has spent the last few days in her ninth-floor rental in an upscale apartment building in the Flatiron district.
On Monday, she reportedly made a brief appearance in federal court as a witness in the case against four people charged with operating the prostitution ring known as the Emperor's Club V.I.P.
"I just don't want to be thought of as a monster," she told the Times. "This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated."
Dupre said on by telephone Tuesday night that she was worried about how she would pay her rent since the man she was living with "walked out on me" after she discovered he had fathered two children, the newspaper reported.
She told the Times she was considering working at a friend's restaurant or, once her apartment lease expires, moving back in with her family in New Jersey to relax.
On her MySpace page, Dupre writes of her "odyssey to New York from New Jersey through North Carolina, Miami, D.C., Virginia and Austin, Texas."
She reportedly owns a company, created in 2005, called Pasche New York, which her lawyer said was an entertainment business designed to further her singing career.
She says music is her first love and mentions Patsy Cline, Frank Sinatra, Christina Aguilera and Lauryn Hill among a long list of influences, including her brother, Kyle.
Her mother is identified as 46-year-old Carolyn Capalbo, who said her daughter she attended Wall High School in Belmar until her sophomore year, when she moved to North Carolina.
"She was a young kid with typical teenage rebellion issues, but we are extremely close now," Capalbo told the Times.
Capalbo told the newspaper that she was "shell-shocked" when her daughter called mid-last week and told her she had been working as an escort and was now in trouble with the law. She said she was not sure Dupre realized who Mr. Spitzer was when he was her client.
"She is a very bright girl who can handle someone like the governor," Capalbo told the Times. "But she also is a 22-year-old, not a 32-year-old or a 42-year-old, and she obviously got involved in something much larger than her."
