Belle de Jour Reveals Her True Identity As a Scientist

After six years of anonymous blogging as Belle de Jour, Dr. Brooke Magnanti revealed her true identity to the Sunday Times.

For six years Magnanti had been keeping a blog about her life as a high-class $500 an hour prostitute in London. Her blog inspired a Showtime series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl."

On Sunday after revealing her identity as Dr. Magnanti, cancer scientist, she told reporters she turned to prostitution while writing her Ph.D. thesis in 2003.

Magnanti is currently working at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health as a specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology, in a team researching the effects of exposure to the pesticide cholrpyrifos on infants.

While working on her thesis and unable to find a job to cover her bills, Magnanti turned to a London escort agency during which time she said slept with between dozens and hundreds of men.