New Delhi: Kellie Maloney formerly known as the boxing promoter Frank, announced at the weekend that she was now a woman.
And Maloney has praised the world of sport for the reaction to her shock sex change revelation.
According to ddaily mail, Maloney, the 62-year-old said she was worried about the reaction, adding that she'd known from a very young age she was in the wrong body but suppressed it due to her working-class upbringing, during which she was taken to Millwall at three.
'I knew (she wanted to be a woman) when I was very young. But I come from a working-class background, I was taken to Millwall when I was three.
'When I was against my brothers I had to excel at everything. I had to the best at any sport.
'It was very hard and I felt I don't want to be different. I thought it'd just go but it didn't.'
Asked how she felt about any negative comments, she said: 'I received so many of them in my boxing business they'd just be like water off a duck's back now to me. Really, that life has prepared me for this transition.'
The catalyst, Maloney revealed, was when her father died of cancer, adding: 'The day my father died four years ago the lid came off it.'
The ex-boxing promoter and manager also revealed about trying to seek assurances from professionals: 'I would phone the counsellor because I didn't want him to know who I was. I'd say, "Tell me I'm not a transsexual" but he'd say, "I don't know you, if you're asking me there must be something in it".'
Maloney re-iterated that she would have killed herself had she not revealed her true self but said the hardest thing was telling her former wife, insisting: 'I would have killed myself. I was angry with everyone and that's what made me do it. My wife was also my best friend we had a great relationship.
'We're divorced now, though. But when I was telling her, when it was coming out I wanted to catch it and put it back in.'
