Billie Piper's British series Secret Diary of a Call Girl is leaving Netflix at the end of May 2025. Based on the blog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call, the London-set series follows a young woman named Hannah Baxter (Piper) who lives a double life as a high-class call girl named Belle. Written by Lucy Prebble and released in 2007, the series ran for four seasons until it ended in 2011, before finding a new home on Netflix.
The synopsis reads: "Hannah Baxter, a 27-year-old college graduate, has her parents believing she works as a legal secretary, but she actually entertains clients of an exclusive London escort service as her alter ego, Belle. Her job allows her to live in something close to luxury, but the strain of leading this double life occasionally catches up with her and keeps her from enjoying a more conventionally 'normal' life with her family and friends." Fans of the show don't have much longer to binge-watch it on the streaming service as it's due to be taken down on 29 May.
Following its release, Secret Diary of a Call Girl received mixed reactions and responses from critics, and the series currently has a critic score of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes from 31 reviews. "The show has a smart approach, playing off staid British manners and a star character at peace with living on the wrong side of the law," wrote Variety. Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly said: "The series, like Belle, is far too smart to succumb to such an average attitude." However, not all reviews were positive; The Philadelphia Inquirer stated: "The frequently complacent British press burst a gasket last fall when Diary premiered, complaining that it glorified prostitution. Actually, it does just the opposite. Who could ever admire such a soulless person as this?" The Guardian remarked that the show was "not very good," while The New York Times noted that "Secret Diary has amusing touches, but not enough to sustain an entire series."
In a different vein, Billie Piper previously revealed that booze played a huge part in her marriage with Chris Evans. The Secret Diary of a Call Girl star, 42, got hitched to the radio legend in Las Vegas back in 2001, after a whirlwind romance which began a year prior. The pair had met when Piper was appearing on the Channel 4 show, TFI Friday, which Evans hosted from 1996 to 2000. Their relationship raised more than a few eyebrows at the time, given the singer was only 18-years-old, while the TV titan was 17 years her senior at the age of 35.
The criticism that followed her and Evans' marriage ended up impacting her career too, according to Piper - as showbiz bigwigs supposedly judged her for it before she'd even got through the door when going to auditions. The Brit pop star, from Wiltshire, explained that she faced 'loads of rejection' as she made the transition from making music to acting, as she had a lot of 'baggage' as a result of her getting wed to Evans.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2022, Piper reflected on the media scrutiny regarding her relationship with the disc jockey and the judgement from her peers in the entertainment world. She explained: "A lot of it was just tabloid fodder, rather than, 'Oh, she was a pop star'. It was more, ‘She was a pop star, then she got p***ed for five years with an old man'. I think that was the lasting image when I walked into an audition room." Piper then clarified: "Older man. Not old man. He’s an old man now, but then, so am I."
She went on to say she 'loved' the time she spent with Evans - who she described as a 'real friend' - even if they both were three sheets to the wind for a big chunk of it. "Loved it," Piper said. "Loved that time. Learned so much. Really needed it, after the experiences that I’d had, leading up to that point. And I felt like I’d actually found a real friend. I guess meeting someone who had experienced [fame] for 20 years, at that level, it was very nurturing. And also very drunken, which I needed. I had a lot of fun during those years."
Piper and Evans called it quits in 2004, when she was 21-years-old, before their divorce was finalized in 2007. Despite deciding they weren't a perfect match, they have remained on good terms ever since - with Piper even attending his wedding to professional golfer Natasha Shishmanian in August 2007. Evans, 59, also looks back fondly on his years with Piper too, and interestingly, he even reminisces about the demise of their romance affectionately.
The Virgin Radio star previously explained that he reckons he and Piper 'consciously uncoupled' way before Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin made it a popular turn of phrase - without them even realizing. For those who don't know, this essentially means taking an amicable approach when ending a relationship instead of having a blazing row and becoming mortal enemies. Instead, both parties acknowledge that what they had was great, but it's over now - so there's still mutual respect, understanding, and love between them.
Evans explained he had this epiphany after watching the TV series Laurel Canyon, according to the Express, while the book it's loosely based on of the same name also gave him some perspective. Speaking in 2020, the radio host explained that an episode focusing on the relationship between music artists Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell led him to this realization. After watching their split unfold on screen, he believes it was a 'very early version of conscious uncoupling'.
"The first time that I heard the phrase conscious uncoupling was to do with Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin," Evans said. "And lots of people said at the time, ‘You’ve just split up, you’ve just dumped each other, why are you calling it conscious uncoupling?’ And I thought, 'It’s just a fancy way of them sort of smoke screening the fact that they’ve ditched each other' - but I didn’t realize that conscious uncoupling is a thing and there’s a book about it and it’s brilliant." He said that the book details how consciously uncoupling with your significant other is 'the best way to do it, if you still get on' with the person.
"Because you might love them, but no longer like them," Evans went on. "You might like them, but no longer love them, but if you like them and no longer love them, you will end up loving them again one day if you consciously uncouple. And if you love them, but no longer like them, you will end up liking them again if you consciously uncouple. But I think that Billie and I, I think we unconsciously consciously uncoupled," he added, before jokingly saying: "So there’s maybe a book in there - it wouldn’t be very long - but anyway, it’s a thing!"
Evans is still happily married to Shishmanian, who he shares three sons and one daughter with, while Piper is reportedly single after separating from 'Tribes' frontman Johnny Lloyd in 2023. She shares two sons with controversial actor Laurence Fox, who she was married to for nine years until their divorce in May 2016.
