Employer stands by unmasked Belle de Jour

The employers of unmasked call girl turned bestselling author Belle de Jour are standing by her.  After years of speculation, Belle has revealed her true identity – she is Brooke Magnanti, a research scientist who works as a specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology.  Dr Magnanti was an impoverished student working on her PhD thesis at SheffieldUniversity when she turned to prostitution as way to earn some cash.

Belle de Jour’s blog, in which she frankly recorded her sexual encounters as a high class escort, led to a six-figure book deal and was later translated into a mainstream television drama, ‘The Secret Diary of a Call Girl’, starring Billie Piper.

A month ago, Dr Magnanti, who is based at St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol and employed by the University of Bristol, revealed her secret to her colleagues at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health, who were “amazingly kind and supportive”.  Barry Taylor, a university spokesman, has reportedly said: “This aspect of her past bears no relevance to her current role at the university.”

Belle (or, Brooke Magnanti, as we now know her to be) can think herself lucky that her employer has been so supportive; many other anonymous bloggers (e.g. Catherine Sanderson author of the blog ‘peitieanglaise’) have been dismissed for bringing their employer into disrepute once their true identity has been revealed.

How would you, as an employer, have reacted if Belle was one of your employees?

Do you think employees should be free to blog about their private lives without fear of repercussions at work?