'Belle de Jour' call girl exposes herself

The employers of a 34-year-old scientist who wrote a racy best-selling book about being a prostitute on Monday defended her after she outed herself as the author "Belle de Jour".

Dr. Brooke Magnanti, who works for The Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health, at the weekend revealed herself to be the woman behind the nom de plume -- which is the title of a famous 1960s French film starring Catherine Deneuve.

Magnanti, who lives in Bristol, revealed her true identity to The Sunday Times amid fears that a former boyfriend was about to blow the secret, and to lift the burden of living a double life.

Magnanti kept a weblog of her antics in 2003-2004, which were turned into a best-selling book, "The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl."

Her memoirs were adapted into a hit 16-episode television series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl," which starred actress Billie Piper and was screened in countries around the world.

Magnanti is part of a team researching the potential effects on a baby of its mother's exposure to toxic chemicals.

A spokesman for Bristol University told AFP: "She's employed by the university but we've got nothing to add regarding the matter.

"She's a researcher. She's just a member of staff here and what happened in the past doesn't really bear relevance to what she's doing now."

Magnanti went to London to find work while completing the thesis for her doctorate, but found her savings were vanishing rapidly. She joined an agency and began having sex for 300 pounds a session.

The doctor, who still continues the blog she started back then, wrote that "keeping up a double life" was "just too difficult to do long-term".

"I suppose I always thought that the part of my life I wrote about would fade away, that I could stick it in a box and move on. Totally separate it from the 'real me'," she wrote.

She said it had taken her years to realise that while her life had moved on, Belle would "always be a part of me".

"Belle and the person who wrote her had been apart too long. I had to bring them back together.

"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.

"It became important to acknowledge that aspect of my life and my personality to the world at large.

"I am a woman. I lived in London. I was a call girl.

"The people, the places, the actions and feelings are as true now as they were then, and I stand behind every word with pride."

Her publisher Orion Books said: "It's a courageous decision for Belle de Jour to come forward with her true identity and we support her decision to do so.

"We have published her since 2005 and we are looking forward to continuing that relationship."

In the 1967 movie "Belle de Jour" -- a play on the French expression "belle de nuit," or lady of the night -- Deneuve played a bored housewife who takes to prostitution in the daytime, while her husband is working.