Ex-Hooker Blogger Is Cancer Researcher

A former London hooker whose blog posts have been turned into books and a popular British TV series has finally revealed her identity as a scientist who works in a hospital on kids' cancer research. Dr. Brooke Magnanti, 34, has been writing under the pen name "Belle du Jour" to describe her experiences working as a $450-an-hour call girl to earn money in graduate school. She said she found the work "so much more enjoyable" than her shifts as a computer programmer.

"I don't want this massive secret over me any more," said Magnanti, who worried an ex-boyfriend was about to reveal her identity. In her latest blog, Magnanti said she "feels so much better" now that she has stepped forward—"not to have to tell lies, hide things from the people I care about. To be able to defend my experience of sex work to all the skeptics and doubters." (More call girl stories.)