Popular male writer 'unmasked as woman'

The bizarre mystery surrounding the true identity of a writer claiming to be a 25-year-old former male prostitute and drug addict may have been solved.

JT LeRoy, whose purportedly semi-autobiographical tales about growing up as an HIV-infected child hustler won critical acclaim and a celebrity following, is now said to have been unmasked as a 40-year-old woman.

LeRoy never existed and Laura Albert – who had previously claimed to have rescued LeRoy from the streets and started him on his literary career – in fact wrote the books, according to a lawyer for Albert’s estranged partner, Geoffrey Knoop.

Knoop, 39, who apologised for his role in the hoax, said the stress of keeping it secret had become too much to bear.

The couple split in December after 16 years and are currently deciding custody of their young son.

His lawyer Eric Feig said: “He’s wanted to come clean and let JT fade away.

“He wanted to take the high road.”

Mr Feig added that his client had secured a film deal to tell his side of the story.

LeRoy’s works, which include Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, were not bestsellers but delighted critics and celebrities such as Winona Ryder, Courtney Love, Carrie Fisher and Madonna.

Albert allegedly undertook the ruse to get her work recognised.

The cult of JT (short for Jeremy Terminator) LeRoy began unravelling in October with an article in New York magazine asking who he really was and pointing at Albert.

Last month, a story in the New York Times identified the person who often appeared in public as LeRoy, complete with long blond wig, hat and shades, as Knoop’s half sister, Savannah Knoop.

Knoop told the newspaper this weekend that he had seen Albert write the books of JT Leroy in their San Francisco apartment, and had often been present when she conducted telephone conversations as LeRoy.

“The jig is up,” he said.

“I do want to apologise to people who were hurt. It got to a level I didn’t expect.”

The 39-year-old rock musician added: “If you’re feeling more and more suffocated by the complications and lies, it’s not worth it.”

He said his and Albert’s separation was in large part because of stress caused by the deception.

LeRoy’s lawyer, Peter Cane, did not comment.

The writer’s story, recounted in dozens of interviews, was that Albert was a social worker who rescued the teenager from the streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district around 1993.

Under her guidance he supposedly saw Dr Terrence Owens, a psychologist specialising in treating adolescents, who encouraged him to write.

Dr Owens was then said to have passed an early manuscript to a neighbour who was an editor, creating a literary icon.