kellie: “I thought I’d never be able to go out in public again”
Former boxing promoter Kellie Maloney tells Closer why plastic surgery left her fearing for her life and how her love life has suffered since her sex change
S he shocked the world in 2014 when she announced that, after years of internal torment, she’d be transitioning from boxing promoter Frank Maloney into a woman called Kellie.
And following more than 20 operations and the completion of her gender reassignment in 2015, Kellie Maloney’s self-confidence is now at an all-time high.
DATING KNOCKBACKS
But the 64-year-old – who was married to wife Tracey for 15 years and has daughters Emma, 39, Sophie, 21, and Libby, 15 – says that while she’s finally content with her body, her love life has taken a hit and her complicated past makes it tricky to form a relationship.
“Dating is a sad topic for me,” she admits. “I’m having problems with love. I want to date, of course, but it’s hard. I’ve been on a few good dinner dates with men [she spoke of dating actor Lincoln Hudson in 2015], but when they realise who I am, they make up an excuse and leave or never contact me again. I think they’re scared of being judged, or it’s my history in boxing – I don’t know.”
As a double blow, Kellie reveals that she’d been humiliated by both her date on Channel 4’s reality show Celebrity First Dates – which was never shown on TV – as well as a recent dating agency she requested to join.
She says: “I was the only person whose date on First Dates wasn’t aired. The man said he didn’t want it to be shown because he was embarrassed. And then I signed up for a dating site, but when they realised who I was, they said: ‘Sorry, we can’t help you find what you’re looking for.’”
But optimistic Kellie says that with every negative experience she learns more about what she wants in a partner.
She says: “The problem is that men my age freak out when they find out who I am and it scares them off. I’ve thought about younger men – I was asked out by a 28-year-old the other day, but I have to be respectful to my three daughters. I don’t want them to feel embarrassed.
“It comes down to security and confidence. I want someone confident and comfortable with who they are and secure in themselves. It’s difficult.”
The former Celebrity Big Brother star’s romantic struggles follow an unsettling few years of transition. Since she announced to the world that
she’d be living as a woman in August 2014, she has had a boob job, a hair transplant, facelifts, electrolysis, lip fillers and facial surgery as well as voice coaching, hormone therapy and counselling.
LEFT IN A COMA
But in this week’s Celebrity Botched Up Bodies, TV viewers will see how in November 2014, Kellie was left fighting for her life after an operation went wrong. A few hours after her surgery, which aimed to slim down her nose and make her features softer, her face swelled to double its size as a result of haematoma – an abnormal collection of blood outside a blood vessel. She was left bleeding from her eyes and struggling to breathe.
“It was the most frightening time of my life,” she says. “I’d met the doctor before the operation and he told me everything I wanted to hear. He promised me I’d walk out of there feeling like a million dollars. Instead I left fearing for my life.
“I was in intensive care and in a coma for four and a half days. My daughters were terrified and I thought I’d never be able to go out in public again.”
Kellie – who paid £17,000 for the operation – goes on to have further procedures on the show, but they are non-surgical. She gets Botox for her wrinkles, and her eyelids, eyebrows and the areola around her nipples tattooed to finish her transition.
She now reveals she won’t have any more surgery. “I wish I’d done my homework,” she says. “I’d advise anyone to do their background research and make sure they 100 per cent trust their surgeon. Check everything. And check that there is good enough aftercare for after the operation.”
Kellie has raised money and spoken out for transgender causes. She says her status as Britain’s most famous transgender woman gives her a responsibility to help others – but has some advice for Caitlyn Jenner, who transitioned from Bruce to a woman in 2015.
“I don’t think Caitlyn is a great role model,” she says. “She hasn’t done enough for the trans community. She seems more interested in promoting herself than helping them. She lives in a clouded world and isn’t in touch with reality. Last year I went to the US to speak at a trans event. Caitlyn was also supposed to speak but didn’t in the end – the fee she’d asked for was ridiculous!”
Despite her difficult love life, brush with death and operations, Kellie is, with the support of family and friends, finally feeling secure and happy in her body.
She says: “When I go out, I don’t get misgendered. I’m not a shrinking violet trying to hide away. I’m confident and when I look in the mirror I now see the person I’d always believed I should be. I have a smile inside myself. Kellie Maloney is now complete and very happy.”
‘I want to date but men are scared of me!’
Celebrity Botched Up Bodies airs on Sunday 5 February at 10pm, Channel 5