Share Dr Magnanti 'outed' herself yesterday in a remarkably uncritical, three-page interview in a broadsheet newspaper. I didn't,' she said, swatting away criticism that her diaries glamorise a seedy, dangerous industry. The people at the agency looked after us appropriately and instructed us appropriately and weren't going to put us in harm's way if they could possibly avoid it.
I can't honestly remember. Somewhere between dozens and hundreds,' she says. I couldn't get an overdraft, though once I started depositing so much cash, they offered me a mortgage within three months. It's changing the way I behave around people, the way I conduct my life,' she says. Mention was also made of a former boyfriend 'with a big mouth, lurking in the background'. Stranger than fiction: Escort girl Belle de Jour was leading a double life as Dr Brooke Magnanti the studious scientist who 'outed' herself yesterday Could this be the man she referred to as The Boy in her diaries, her former boyfriend of seven years, who comes across as, in his own words, 'a lumbering idiot'?
The man for whom she did not wear 'work knickers' but, according to Belle's blog, 'boyfriend knickers' 'Small. Take-it-off-with-your-teeth type stuff' A man described as so keen on bear hugs he could squeeze a rabbit to death.
A man whose bedroom activities were pored over by millions of readers. Step forward The Boy, whom we can reveal is a year-old officer in the Armed Forces called Owen, who will soon be serving in Afghanistan. He met Brooke in Sheffield in - the year before she started her blog - when she was studying for her PhD and he was working as an engineer. He was aware of Belle's true identity from the beginning, and the escort work, but admits he was so blinded by love that he buried his head in the sand, refusing to read the blog in detail until they broke up a year ago.
Until then, he'd assumed she was paid only for her scintillating company. He suspected her of sleeping with some clients, but thought this was because she was attracted to them, rather than because money changed hands. Indeed, he claims Brooke told him - as the media storm about Belle's identity raged - that she'd sensationalised what had really happened with her clients in order to capitalise on the situation. Given Belle's assertion on her blog yesterday - 'The non-Belle part of my life isn't the only "real" bit.
