Chicago ? The call girl at the center of the prostitution scandal that prompted Gov. Eliot Spitzer to resign in disgrace has been identified as a 22-year-old aspiring musician who struggled in a broken home as a child.

The New York Times reported that the real name of the woman – identified as “Kristen” in court papers alleging that Spitzer paid thousands of dollars for her services – is Ashley Alexandra Dupre.

Don D. Buchwald, a New York lawyer, confirmed to The Associated Press that he represents Dupre, but he wouldn’t comment further.

Law enforcement officials have said Spitzer had a Feb. 13 tryst with Kristen and paid her $4,300, according to court papers. Spitzer said Wednesday that he’s resigning.

Dupre briefly spoke to the Times about the Spitzer scandal but didn’t offer details on her involvement in it. “I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster,” she told the Times. “This has been a very difficult time. It’s complicated.”

Dupre told the newspaper she had slept very little since the allegations against Spitzer were revealed, and she declined to comment when asked by the Times when she first met him and how many times they had been together.

She told the Times she was worried about paying her rent in a ninth-floor Manhattan apartment since her boyfriend recently left her. Rents in the Chelsea Landmark start at $3,500.

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

“I have been alone,” she wrote. “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.”

“What destroys me strengthens me” is the slogan next to a photograph of her. The photos show her at various places, including in a bikini on a boat in a tropical locale.

Dupre is expected to be a witness in the case against four people charged with operating the prostitution ring.