Frank Maloney, the boxing promoter who guided Lennox Lewis to a world heavyweight title, has revealed he now lives as a woman named Kellie and is undergoing gender reassignment surgery.
“I was born in the wrong body and I have always known I was a woman,” Kellie said in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Mirror. “What was wrong at birth is now being medically corrected. I have a female brain. I knew I was different from the minute I could compare myself to other children.”
Maloney, 61, retired from involvement in boxing last October and led several fighters to titles, including Lennox Lewis.
Maloney ran for mayor of London as a candidate for the rightwing UK Independence Party in 2004, and was condemned for making homophobic remarks during his campaign. He refused to campaign in the borough of Camden, saying there were “too many gays” there.
“I don’t think they [gay people] do a lot for society. I don’t have a problem with gays, what I have a problem with is them openly flaunting their sexuality,” Maloney said at the time. “I’m more for traditional family values and family life.” He lost his bid for mayor, capturing less than 3% of the vote.
In her interview with the Mirror, Maloney said, “I can’t keep living in the shadows, that is why I am doing what I am today. Living with the burden any longer would have killed me.”
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