Meet Dr. Brooke Magnanti, aka Belle de Jour. The research scientist revealed earlier today that she was in fact the former London call girl behind the infamous anonymous blog. Read more about this story below, plus photos and video.
Dr. Brooke Magnanti wrote about her sexual experiences through a blog and authored several books, all under the pen name of Belle de Jour.
Why out herself now, you may wonder? She was afraid that an ex-boyfriend of hers was going to blab her secret. She revealed herself through an interview with The Sunday Times earlier today.
She spoke of how she got started in the world of prostitution, stating that six years ago while she was towards the end of working on her PhD thesis, she had run out of money. She couldn’t pay the rent and needed to find something right away where no training was needed. She found herself working for a London escort agency where she earned £300 or roughly $500 an hour working as a prostitute. This would go on for 14 months. She started writing of her sexual escapades on the blog Belle de Jour. In fact, in an entry dated today, she wrote:
“So a perfect storm of feelings and circumstances drew me out of hiding. And do you know what? It feels so much better on this side. Not to have to tell lies, hide things from the people I care about. To be able to defend what my experience of sex work is like to all the skeptics and doubters.”
As a biography, Dr. Brooke Magnanti is 34 years of age. She was born in the United States and attended high school in Florida. She later moved to Sheffield and continued with her studies, wanting a PhD in forensic pathology. Money would soon run out for the petite blonde while working on her thesis and turned to prostitution. Under the pen name Belle de Jour, she wrote a blog and authored several books. Her life as a call girl had been made into a TV series, which was seen on ITV2 in the UK and featured Billie Piper as Belle (see the video below). It aired in the U.S. on Showtime.
Currently, Magnanti works at Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health. She noted in the interview that her co-workers were “amazingly kind and supportive” regarding her reveal.
What are your thoughts on the the news of Dr. Brooke Magnanti as Belle de Jour? Leave me a comment below!
November 16th, 2009 at 5:02 am
I always wondered whether that book was actually based on real experiences or if it was fiction…now I know!
November 19th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Belle de Jour’s admirers say we should not be ‘judgmental’. Yet here is a well-educated woman who has any number of ways to generate an income, yet chooses to sell her body.
Try explaining that to a woman in Africa who turns to prostitution to put food in her babies’ bellies.
No, there is nothing beautiful about Belle de Jour.
December 27th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Brooke Magnanti is a very very self-involved, willfully ignorant woman. I wouldn’t taker her “insights” on prostitution very seriously.