Welcome home daddy, I’m a porn star!
That was the shocking news Kevin Weeks was greeted with as he returned from a tour of duty serving as an army doctor in Afghanistan.
Online and on TV, his beloved daughter is loudly and proudly proclaiming how she’s paying for her college education by making X-rated films under the pseudonym Belle Knox after she was outed by a fellow student.
The real identity of the 18-year-old student who has caused a nationwide uproar and family heartache is Miriam Weeks, raised a devout Catholic in a loving home in Spokane, Washington.
Miriam’s Catholic father Kevin and mother Harcharan, have been ‘floored’ by their daughter’s decision to turn to porn to fund her $50,000-plus-a-year education at the prestigious Duke University.
But they won’t abandon her, a family member told MailOnline exclusively.
Amanda Minor, the mother-in-law of Miriam’s brother Paul, told MailOnline: ‘This is a tragedy in the family. The father is one of the best human beings I’ve ever met. He is just back from Afghanistan; he served his country, how awesome is that?
‘He’s so proud of his daughter; there’s no way they could have known this was going on. It’s terrible. But they would never abandon their daughter. This is a nightmare what the family are going through.’
Last week, Miriam had claimed in interviews that her parents had only themselves to blame for her decision.
Identified only by her porn name Belle Knox, she said that she was forced into making X-rated films because her parents suddenly cut off their financial support.
How else, she asked, was she able to find nearly $5,000 a month for the tuition fees alone?
But by the time she appeared on Piers Morgan’s CNN show last Thursday, Miriam switched her story, saying she decided to begin starring in adult movies when she received her financial aid package from Duke and found out she was going to need to pay about $47,000 a year.
‘The financial aid that I was given to pay for my tuition was insufficient and just really an enormous financial burden on my family,’ she said.
But the damage had been done. Dr. Weeks and his wife, nicknamed ‘Hershie’ by her friends, were vilified for abandoning their child.
Dr. Weeks’s official medical Google Plus homepage had been hacked into with a picture of their daughter’s body as the main icon, and reviewers left vicious comments such as: ‘Don’t know what kind of doctor he is, but he did a pretty bad job of raising his daughter.’
This is simply not the case, according to family members. Several relatives, friends and associates of the family interviewed by MailOnline painted a picture of an extremely devoted couple who have only wanted the best for their three children, Miriam, sister Anita, 20, and brother Paul, 22.
‘I hate the fact that they are being bad mouthed and what is she going on Piers Morgan for? Oh My God. She’s such a beautiful girl,’ said Mrs Minor, Paul’s mother-in-law.
‘The family adore this girl. Maybe she got into something that she shouldn’t have? I can’t explain why she’s done this. There’s no way the parents should be painted like this, they’ve given their kids every opportunity in life.’
Kevin, 54, and Harcharan, 48, were dumbfounded when they learned that their daughter was a porn actress just 24 hours before the news broke.
In their suburban home in Spokane, 250 miles east of Seattle, the couple was slowly coming to grips with their daughter’s new lifestyle.
Mr Weeks, a religious Catholic, is an esteemed doctor at the Mann Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, which deals only with war veterans. His Indian wife comes from a culture where pornography is generally vilified.
Humiliated: Dr Weeks’ official medical Google home page was hacked into, subbing this image for a photo of the doctor
Educating their children and setting them on the right path meant everything to them, say family members, and their financial outlay on their children’s education has been staggering, even on Dr Weeks’s six-figure salary.
All the children, including Miriam, attended Gonzaga Prep School in Spokane, a Jesuit school known for its high academic and sporting achievements. Tuition is about $11,000 a year.
It was well worth the outlay. Miriam was a straight A ‘genius’ student. She was given the ‘Spokane Scholar’ in Foreign Languages during her final school year, 2012-13.
It’s hardly surprising that out of 38,000 applicants, Miriam Weeks was one of just over 3,000 students admitted to prestigious Duke University.
Miriam’s siblings had also gone on to study at high-ranking universities. Paul Weeks studied percussion at St Martin’s University, which costs a minimum of $40,000-a-year. But he wasn’t it a penny in debt, as one family member reveals.
‘Education means everything to that family. The parents are so devoted. I know that they were so proud to be putting Paul through university, and paid for him,’ says Mrs Minor.
‘But they’ve worked very, very hard to put their children through college. Hershie told me that student debt cripples young people and she made sure Paul didn’t come out with a penny of debt. She doesn’t want any of her children burdened by financial debt.
‘There’s another daughter in college as well. It’s going to cost a small fortune to put all of them through. It’s a lot for any family.’
Mrs Minor agrees, adding: ‘Miriam’s a beautiful girl, half Indian, half American. Nothing has happened with the family that I know. They wouldn’t have any idea what was wrong with their daughter and this is happening.
‘The kids are their pride and joy. The sisters are brilliant, articulate, wonderful girls. They were so proud that she was going to Duke University. They worshipped her. If they had stopped paying, they would have had good reason for it. But they’d never abandon her, ever.’
Mrs Minor is one of many family members trying to come to grips with why Miriam would hurt her parents by appearing in porn movies.
Besides money, one possible explanation is that the family has been under stress due to Dr Weeks’s deployment to Afghanistan and this is Miriam’s way of dealing with it.
Dr Weeks has been a serving army doctor in hematology for over 19 years and has travelled the globe serving his country.
Miriam wrote on a blog that she’s ‘lived all over the world because I’m an Army Brat!’. Dr Weeks has served in some of the bloodiest war zones and only recently returned from the war-torn country.
‘You may find that the family has been under some stress recently for heroic reasons, said Mrs Minor, who lives in Lacey, Washington. ‘Your dad being away from home in a war zone, that’s going to put some stress on everyone else.’
Going under the guise of Belle Knox, Miriam began her thriving porn career quietly, until she was outed by a fellow student a couple of weeks ago.
The 18-year-old appeared on front pages across the globe and sat down with Piers Morgan for a CNN interview using only her stage name and claiming that she was not ashamed of what she was doing and, in fact, felt ‘empowered’ by her career.
I’m not being exploited. I love what I’m doing and I’m safe,’ insists the women’s studies major.
While Miriam seemed to be flourishing in her fifteen minutes of fame, she did admit to one pang of conscience – keeping it all from her parents. ‘I regret not telling my family from the get-go. I think that was a really big mistake,’ Miriam told Morgan.
Considering her background, it’s difficult to believe that Miriam was cut off by her parents, say family members.
