Purported call girl, 22, doesn’t want to be seen as a ‘monster’

NEW YORK -- —  New details emerged Wednesday about the purported call girl at the center of the prostitution scandal engulfing New York’s governor, with a newspaper report identifying her as a 22-year-old aspiring musician from Manhattan.

The New York Times reported that the real name of the woman -- identified as Kristen in court papers alleging that Gov. Eliot Spitzer paid more than $4,000 for prostitutes’ services -- is Ashley Alexandra Dupre.

Don D. Buchwald, a New York lawyer, confirmed to the Associated Press that he represents Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the same woman in the newspaper story. “That’s as far as I can go,” he said.

A man who answered the phone at the home of the woman’s mother in New Jersey and identified himself as Dupre’s brother, Kyle, told the Associated Press he did not know why Dupre would agree to be interviewed about the scandal.

“I’ve talked to my sister every five minutes since this happened, and I’m not going to comment on it,” he said. “She’s just trying to get through this.”

Dupre’s MySpace page provides a window into her life as she went from a broken home in New Jersey to a music career in the city.

“I have been alone. I have abused drugs. I have been broke and homeless. But, I survived, on my own. I am here, in NY because of my music,” wrote Dupre, who was born Ashley Youmans.

In an Aug. 30 blog posting, she writes: “The past few months have been a roller coaster with so called friends, lovers, and family . . . but its something you have to deal with and confront in order to move on . . .”

“What destroys me strengthens me” is the slogan next to a photograph of Dupre. The photos show her at various places, including in a bikini on a boat in a Mediterranean locale. The hits to the page soared by the tens of thousands after the story broke.

Dupre describes her favorite musical artists as Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera and Frank Sinatra, among many others.

Her website boasts a recording of a song, “What We Want.” “I know what you want, you got what I want. I know what you need. Can you handle me?” she sings.

She briefly spoke to the New York Times about the scandal. Law enforcement officials identified the governor as “Client 9” who had a Feb. 13 tryst with “Kristen” and paid her $4,300, according to court papers.

“I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster,” Dupre told the newspaper. “This has been a very difficult time. It’s complicated.”

She said that she had slept very little since the allegations against Spitzer were revealed.

Dupre said that she worried about paying her rent in a ninth-floor Manhattan apartment after her boyfriend recently left her. She said she was considering moving back in with her family in New Jersey.

She declined to comment when asked by the newspaper when she first met Spitzer and how many times they had been together.

Dupre apparently appeared in federal court Monday as a witness in the case against four people accused of operating the Emperors’ Club VIP prostitution ring.