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I want you back, says Belle de Jour’s lover
Felix Allen16 Nov 2009
The ex-boyfriend of call girl Belle de Jour told today how he still loves her and would give anything to win her back.
The Army officer, named only as Owen, spoke out after research scientist Dr Brooke Magnanti was unmasked as the best-selling author and former prostitute.
For six years she had kept her identity secret while penning one of the internet's best-read blogs. It spawned a hit book, The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, and a TV series starring Billie Piper.
But the real-life Belle went public yesterday, apparently after learning that the Daily Mail was about to reveal her identity.
Dr Magnanti, 33, who now works as a researcher at St Michael's Hospital in Bristol, said she did not regret becoming a £300-an-hour escort working for a London agency while an impoverished PhD student in 2003.
Public school-educated Owen, who is soon to be deployed to Afghanistan, said he blamed himself for her choice because at the time he had lost his job and could not support her.
He believed she only worked as a "modern geisha" escort who was not sleeping with clients, and believed her reassurance that sexually explicit passages in her blog were "fictionalised".
He had planned to propose and had two rings made, but buried them on a beach after their relationship ended last year after seven years.
Today he revealed his anguish at being "outed" to family and friends as the prostitute's long-term lover - referred to in her memoirs as The Boy - but said he forgave her. He said: "You can say love is blind, that love makes a fool of you, but I thought it was 'knickers on' work, to put it crudely."
He says the success of Belle de Jour became a "trap" for his girlfriend, who was reluctant to kill the character off when she gave up escort work in 2004.
It was suggested that Dr Magnanti had gone public because a "big-mouthed" ex-boyfriend had already revealed her name to a newspaper but Owen denied having anything to do with it.
US-born researcher Magnanti, who studied in Sheffield before moving to London, told how she turned to prostitution when she could not pay the rent and needed a job.
Until last week not even her agent knew Belle de Jour's identity.
Extracts from diary of a London call girl
* “He asked me to undress to underwear (bra, stockings with suspenders, knickers over suspenders — so the stockings could stay on during sex). Then he asked if I would undress him. That was when I noticed. The odd angle of his shoulders, his narrow chest, gouge-like scars. I didn't ask. He asked me to swing his legs onto the bed, and when I did, I saw the walking sticks next to it. He did not reach orgasm but enjoyed the sex.”
* “My ex, known here as The Boy, is a PC user. I am a Mac user. This week, in a misguided attempt to win me back, he posted a birthday gift — a 320-gig external hard drive with the entire digital record of our time together. Photos, videos, the lot. “What do you think I found alongside the soppily renamed, weren't-we-great-together rest? Only the Recycle Bin folder. Which he had neglected to empty. Oh, PC. You aren't very clever, are you?”
* “We were well into the session when T bent me over the sofa, then stopped. What was he doing? I'd been flogged on Friday and the end of the whip had bitten into that little oyster of flesh on the inside thigh, leaving raised purple spots that stubbornly persisted. We continued. He didn't mention it and I said nothing, in case that wasn't what had stopped him.”
* November 15, 2009 “A perfect storm of feelings and circumstances drew me out of hiding ... I am a woman. I lived in London. I was a call girl.”
Reader views (7)
Her former life as a call girl would certainly add spice to the marriage. It takes a very confident and secure male to cope with her past. I'd take her in a heart beat!
- Pc Smith, MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA, 16/11/2009 18:28
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This is a typical story that the likes of Harriet Harman and co would not like to see. Instead of painting a picture of prostitutes who are exploited and dragged into the game, here we have a woman who has entered into the trade in her own free will. Most of the up market girls I have met (yes, I do pay for their services), are highly inteligent, excellent businesswomen usually with a high drive who are good at exploiting men ( I don't care)and are great fun to be with.
- Paul B, London, 16/11/2009 18:09
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would Jimbob please inform me where in kensington as I know the Royal Borough very well indeed..send the info. in an unmarked envelope and place it under the grass by bench 345 in kensington gardens, don't tell anyone else, as they will all be turning up after the bonus payouts at canary wharf.
- Patrick Frankling, richmond on thames. surrey., 16/11/2009 17:56
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Ms Wisdom: Why would a man care, really? men only want one thing in a female anyway. The rest is just an act to get to the gold.
- Bob, Cheam, 16/11/2009 15:27
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Can we please not have stories about this skanky old brass; she's not done anything clever.
- Jules_London, london, 16/11/2009 15:10
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Cant see why any man would want to marry a prostitute (famous or infamous)- unless he was just as desperate as her.
- Ancient Wisdom, London, England, 16/11/2009 14:06
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By the sounds of it just throw her £300. Job done.
But to be quite honest you can get much better for £300 an hour.
- Jimbob, Kensington, 16/11/2009 12:27
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