New York, Mar. 13 : Five years after leaving a broken home on the Jersey Shore to come to New York City, 22-year-old Kirsten unwittingly finds herself as the yet unseen star behind Governor Eliot Spitzer’s fall from grace and power.

Kristen, the prostitute described in a federal affidavit as having had a rendezvous with Spitzer on February 13 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, has spent the last few days in her ninth-floor apartment in the Flatiron district of Manhattan.

On Monday, she made a brief appearance in federal court, where a lawyer was appointed to represent her. She is expected to be a witness in the case against four people charged with operating a prostitution ring called the Emperor's Club V. I. P.

In a series of telephone interviews on Tuesday night, she said she had slept very little over the past week, with all the stress of the case.

Born Ashley Youmans but now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupré, she spoke softly and with good humour as she added with significant understatement: "This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated."

She has not been charged. The lawyer appointed to represent her, Don D. Buchwald, told a magistrate judge in court on Monday that she had been subpoenaed to testify in a grand jury investigation. Asked to swear that she had accurately filled out and signed a financial affidavit, she responded affirmatively.

A person with knowledge of the Emperor's Club operation confirmed that the woman interviewed by The New York Times was the woman identified as Kristen in the affidavit.

Ms. Dupré said by telephone Tuesday night that she was worried about how she would pay her rent since the man she was living with "walked out on me" after she discovered he had fathered two children.

She said she was considering working at a friend's restaurant or, once her apartment lease expires, moving back with her family in New Jersey "to relax."

She did not say when she had started working for the Emperor's Club, or how often she had liaisons arranged through the ring.

Asked when she met Governor Spitzer and how many times they had seen each other, Ms. Dupré said she had no comment.

As of Wednesday morning, Ms. Dupré's MySpace page recounted her "odyssey to New York from New Jersey through North Carolina, Miami, D. C., Virginia and Austin, Texas".

Public records show that she lived in Monmouth County, New Jersey in 2001, and in North Carolina in 2003.

She owns a company, created in 2005, called Pasche New York, which her lawyer said was an entertainment business designed to further her singing career.

She says she left "a broken family" at age 17, having been abused, and confirmed using drugs and "been broke and homeless."

According to the New York Times, In the affidavit, the woman the Emperor's Club called Kristen is described as "an American, petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, and 105 pounds."

She apparently was booked at about 1,000 dollars an hour, placing her in the middle of the seven-diamond scale by which the prostitutes were paid up to 4,300 dollars an hour. (ANI)