NEW YORK — Former adult performer Belle Knox is now a student at New York Law School in Tribeca, according to a report in the New York Post.
Knox entered the world of porn in 2013 to help pay her $60,000-a-year tuition costs at Duke University. But a year later, she was outed by a male student who earlier promised her that he’d keep the secret between the two of them.
Soon, the entire university, as well as the world, found out. A yearlong media blitz followed, with interviews on “The View” and countless radio shows across the country. She also was the focus of articles in Time Magazine, The New York Times and Rolling Stone, as well as a Lifetime Channel movie, "From Straight A's to XXX"
Knox, 22, eventually returned to studies to get a bachelor’s degree in sociology, but porn was where her heart was.
In 2015, Knox earned honors at the 2015 XBIZ Awards for Marketing Campaign of the Year. That year she was nominated for three other XBIZ Awards, including Best New Starlet, Crossover Star of the Year and Best Scene in an all-girl feature with Lisa Ann and Nina Hartley.
But in 2016, Knox said she was retired from adult filmmaking industry. She took down her porn website, BelleKnox.com, and started forwarding surfers to the SWOPUSA.org site, the Sex Workers Outreach Project's web property.
Industry attorney Clyde DeWitt told XBIZ today that Knox’s move into the legal industry seems like a good fit.
“She obviously has excelled in academics, graduating from Duke, a top-tier school, and headed to The New York Law School, an excellent, well-respected academy for law study,” DeWitt said. “She must have bankrolled some money and/or received a scholarship, since New York Law’s tuition is nearly $50,000 a year.
“I don’t think that her adjustment to law school will be materially different than anyone else’s. It’s a transition from undergraduate to law school — which is a substantial transition — not from porn to law school.
DeWitt added that a noted, longtime member of New York Law’s faculty is Nadine Strosson, 17-year president of the ACLU and author of, among her many books and articles, “Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights.”
“Nadine, with whom I have had the pleasure of interacting over the years, is as articulate and forceful advocate for the First Amendment as any," DeWitt said. "When she stepped down as ACLU president in 2008, Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and, you would be surprised to know, Antonin Scalia participated in her farewell and tribute luncheon.”
Another industry attorney, Allan Gelbard, told XBIZ upon hearing the news that she's seeking a juris doctor degree: "I wish Ms. Knox the best in her desire to complete law school. It’s a very difficult pursuit, and if she has any questions I’d be glad to answer them for her."
XBIZ wasn't able to reach Knox by post time for comment.