Kellie Maloney gives life update a decade after transitioning from boxing promoter Frank

Kellie Maloney has given an update a decade after announcing her transition from boxing promoter Frank in the Sunday Mirror.

Ten years ago, the 71-year-old transitioned from tough-talking boxing promoter Frank to blonde Kellie, and became close to an English woman, with the pair splitting their time between the UK and Kellie’s home in Portugal. After over a year, Kellie ended the relationship when her friend said, “We would have a perfect relationship if you were Frank.”

She then tried to take her own life in October 2018. but was discovered by a friend at her Algarve home and rushed to hospital where she awoke chained to a bed. When eldest daughter Emma, 47, visited she had said: "Dad why would you do this, we need you in our life, all three of us". After this hit home, Kellie checked into a psychiatric hospital in Faro, which she describes as “the most terrifying experience of my life”.

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Speaking to the Mirror the 71-year-old said: “That was probably the shock I needed to get my life in order. Up to then I was probably looking for someone to come into my life. I then let someone into my life that I shouldn’t have let in. Nothing sexual happened. It could have. That’s when I realised I don’t need people in my life because I have feelings and I don’t need those feelings turned upside down. It’s far safer to cuddle Yogi Bear (one of her three dogs ) than a human.”

Talking about her suicide bid, she added: “I came out of that dark tunnel a brighter person. But I know I could slip back in there. I’ve learned not to drink too much unless I’m in the right frame of mind and to not let negativity into my life.”

Kellie was a trailblazer when she went public in the Sunday Mirror. A decade on she says she honestly doesn’t know if she has a sexual preference, adding: “But I can say that if I walk into a room and a light goes on in my head then I’ll pursue that person.

“I’ve also learned a relationship is not just about sex, there’s so much more. Does the gender matter? Only if you want society to judge you, and I don’t care about society judging me any more. So if it was the right man or the right woman, yeah. But also you get to a certain age and also I think the hormones killed that sort of sex drive in me.”

Kellie explains she has taken the good parts of Frank and Kellie and combined them: “To me that’s very important because Frank never died. All he did was change the outside wrappings and got his body to match her brain.”

She was delighted to leave behind Frank's arrogance and bullying nature and is more tolerant now. As well as being a proud grandparent of four, she says she is now closer to daughters Emma, Sophie, 28, and Libby, 22, and good friends with ex-wife Tracey.

Kellie says she does not correct her male friends if they forget to call her Kellie while watching football together but can really let her hair down when relaxing with gal pals.

She said: “My female friends, none of them knew Frank, so it’s great. They only see me as Kellie,” she said. “It’s fascinating as I can read the male thought process. If a man approaches my female friends I can tell them what’s the next move the guy will make.

“Especially in Vilamoura (in Portugal) when the golfers are out, you can read them like a book. A friend asked me, ‘How do you know all this?’ I said, ‘Well, unfortunately, I was once one of them’.”

In addition to her 60kg black Russian terrier Yogi Bear, she has two Airedale terriers called Teddy Bear and Winnie Bear, plus seven pigs. She explained: “My companions are my dogs and my animals. I’m not going to say I’ve not been out on dinner dates but I don’t want to take it any further. I don’t feel I need it in my life.”

Kellie says one of her big fears is dementia, which her 91-year-old mum suffers from. After 60 years inside the wrong body, she wants to ensure she has as long as possible as Kellie, she explained: “I think it’s an honour to grow old, not everybody gets to that stage. “It’s a real honour to grow old as my true self. I maybe wouldn’t have got to this stage if I hadn’t transitioned. I was living a lie most of my life and that catches up with you, I think the stress would have killed me.

“I’d like to live to 100 and something and be the oldest trans person in the world. I think I’m one of the luckiest people in the world, I’m at total peace and have contentment. I don’t think there are many people who have that. My friends tell me they wish they could have that.”

"I just think there’s nothing else for me to achieve in life. I’ve lived a full life. And how many people can really say they’ve actually lived a very full life? I’m certainly not ready to go yet.”

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