Alix Earle Supports Braxton Berrios After Surgery, Recalls Finding Out About Injury

The content creator walked through the moment she heard about her boyfriend’s ACL tear on the latest episode of her podcast, ‘Hot Mess.’

Braxton Berrios and Alix Earle / Dave Benett/Getty Images

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind for Alix Earle and Braxton Berrios. During a matchup with the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Oct. 20, the Miami Dolphins wide receiver tore his ACL. Earle herself, who had just taken off for a three-week trip, wasn’t at the game and didn’t see it take place first-hand. In fact, she didn’t see it take place at all.

The game kicked off at 1 p.m. EST on Sunday. Around the same time, the content creator was on a flight to New York City. “I’m stressing out even thinking about this again,” she shared on the latest episode of her podcast Hot Mess. “I was listening to the game the whole flight,” she said, but when she landed she took her headphones out to order a coffee at the airport. The moment she put her headphones back in, she heard the news. “Right as I turned the game on, they said, like, ‘Braxton Berrios in the tent with an injury,’ and that’s just the last thing you want to hear.”

To make matters worse, Earle “was listening to a livestream, so I couldn’t see the game, so I didn’t know what type of injury—like, that could mean anything,” she explained.

Standing in the coffee shop at the airport, “I felt all the blood rush from my face,” she said. She immediately turned to Twitter, but couldn’t get the app to load—no matter what she did. So she texted her boyfriend’s mom, who couldn’t give her much more information aside from the fact that it seemed to be a knee injury. When Berrios called minutes later, Earle “knew right away that it was bad,” she said. “I’ve never heard him like that before.”

Braxton Berrios and Alix Earle / Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images

Not being able to support the athlete in person was, according to Earle, “just the scariest feeling.” She immediately changed all of her travel plans, booking a flight back to Miami the same night.

Now, a week and a half later, Berrios has undergone a “successful surgery” to repair the damage to his ACL, according to an Instagram story that Earle shared on Oct. 30. “Now onto recovery,” she wrote. “And always with a smile on his face.”

Though the experience was undeniably challenging for both of them, we’re happy to know that the athlete is on the road to recovery—and that Earle is there to support him every step of the way.