Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Wife born male and husband born female plan family with surrogacy
until she left the Army. Jake, 40, said: “We have that link that most of society will never understand which is really, really powerful. Our trans identities are something that kind of eased our getting to know each other, it’s not what brought us together.
“It’s not what keeps us together, it’s certainly not what defines our relationship. We are together because of everything else and the fact that we are both trans just makes those difficult moments that much easier.”
Hannah, 31, added: “The thing about trans people is that we are just human beings.
“We want the same things as everyone else. There’s nothing weird about it. We are just a man and a woman in love, who want a family. That’s all there is to it.”
Jake proposed to Hannah at New York’s Central Park in 2017 and they wed last March at Chelsea Old Town Hall.
It was a day Hannah had not allowed herself to imagine while growing up in Cardiff. She said: “I kind of knew I was different, I didn’t vocalise it, I was uncomfortable in my body. I managed to find ways to be happy and to cope with what I was going through.
“But I never felt comfortable enough to be with someone intimately. So I resigned myself to being alone all my life. I thought I would never be loved.
“I thought I would never have a family and that was that.” The former captain told how she came out as transgender while serving in the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers.
She said: “It was quite daunting, but it probably shouldn’t have been because they were amazingly supportive. I was really worried about losing the respect of the people I commanded.
“I was a second in command of a company of around 120 people and I didn’t know what it was going to be like looking after those people and if they would respect me but they were really good about it.”
Hannah eventually felt able to start dating – thought she admits it was “daunting”. Jake was her first real boyfriend. By contrast, her husband had been vocal even as a child that he was unhappy with his body and before transitioning identified as a lesbian.
When he came out to his mum aged 26, she showed him cards he made her as a child, all of which had been signed with boys’ names.
Jake added: “People are scared of what they don’t understand and hopefully some time soon there will come a time when people will understand us and if they don’t then at least they will accept us.”