November 15th 2009 − Belle de Jour, the author of the acclaimed Diary of a London Call Girl blog which was voted Blog of the Year by the The Guardian in 2003 revealed her identity in November 2009. Afraid that a former boyfriend would out her, Brooke Magnanti acknowledged in an interview she gave The Sunday Times, that while completing her PhD studies as a child health research scientist in 2003 and 2004, she had supported herself by working as a call girl in London.

November 15th 2009 − Belle de Jour, the author of the acclaimed Diary of a London Call Girl blog which was voted Blog of the Year by the The Guardian in 2003 revealed her identity in November 2009. Afraid that a former boyfriend would out her, Brooke Magnanti acknowledged in an interview she gave The Sunday Times, that while completing her PhD studies as a child health research scientist in 2003 and 2004, she had supported herself by working as a call girl in London. The anonymous online diary where she gave account of her experiences became highly popular, igniting speculation about her identity and whether the contents were genuine. Magnanti published two books, and a television series was also based on her writings. When she dropped her anonymity, Bristol University, her employer stated that her past was irrelevant of her current status as a scientist. Magnanti wrote the following in her blog on the day of her revelation: „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 sceptics and doubters.” Evaluating the feedback she had received, she wrote that people who say stories like hers glamourise a trade that enslaves and kills women don’t actually know the difference between the separate issues affecting call girls, massage parlours, brothels and streetwalkers, and they are not bothering to find out either.