Call of the wild child

NO one was more relieved than actress Billie Piper when the real-life Belle of The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl fame revealed herself in public. Belle, whose blog was immortalised in a book and the TV show, came out as 34-year-old cancer research scientist Dr Brooke Magnanti.

After enduring two years of criticism over her choice of role, Piper’s clearly relieved by the revelation.

“It’s nice to share the load, to finally have someone come out and speak up and say her piece and defend what she’s done,”

she says.

She’d met Belle as part of her initial preparation, but never had a problem keeping her identity secret. “I just didn’t tell anyone,”

she says.

‘‘Before I me her, I knew nothing about her, apart from what she’d said in her blog and her book. I didn’t really get an insight into who she really was – I didn’t even know her name was Brooke.”

The pair have met since for a TV show called Billie And The Real Belle Bare All, which kicked off the new season of Secret Diary.

In this third TV series, Belle’s dealing with the highs and lows that come with the publication of her first book.

“She’s taken on a whole new role. She’s a published author, she’s a prostitute, she’s a girlfriend, there’s all these things going on in her life, and it’s about how she juggles them and how they kind of cross over and how many grey areas there are,”

says Piper.

She’s also under pressure to find some juicy new material for her next book.

“The editor encourages her to make it more compelling, so her encounters with men just get way out of control. Not in a nasty way or dangerous way, just more fantastical with role play, sex with food, it’s just quite out-there.

“The flip-side of that is her personal life.

She falls in love again and she’s forced to question her profession.”

Last series, Piper was pregnant with son Winston and had to use a body double for her naked scenes. This time she was able to do more, but admits there’s still “a line drawn in the sand”, adding “There are some things that you just don’t want to do.”

She recently admitted that she has even questioned her choice of role now she’s a mum and she still gets stick for “glamorising”

prostitution.

“You’re talking about prostitution and not exposing it in a way it’s normally exposed, which is brutal, beating, murder and rape, all those things we’re used to seeing. It’s so radically different that it scares people because they just don’t understand how any woman would be seemingly okay with it.”

DOES Piper understand Belle and other women like her? “I’m in two minds about whether I think it’s okay, whether it’s wrong, whether it should be legal – I’m really torn.

“I’ve met all these girls who are okay with what they do and I’ve looked at them really hard for the tell-tale signs of someone who’s been tortured, or some tragic tale, or some story of neglect or abuse even, or drugs – and they’re just normal girls. It’s bizarre.”

At 27, she’s happily settled into family life with actor-husband Laurence Fox and their son. While her circumstances are different, she feels she hasn’t changed inside.

“I was expecting to feel something quite different and I just don’t feel like I am. It’s probably because I’ve gone back to work, so I’m endlessly reminded of who I was before.

“I do feel like I have to be more responsible.

I feel like I can’t be as reckless and spontaneous as I once was, but that’s the only difference, I don’t feel like I’ve got some new profound sense of what the world’s all about.

“I definitely feel more complete, like I have a purpose in life. You’re never going to feel bad about taking care of your child, but you might feel bad about always being at work.”