April Ashley | Transgender Woman

The year 1961 was not that good for April Ashley, now 86, as she was forcibly outed for being a transgender woman by the Sunday People newspaper. She was then recognized as one of the earlier British people who underwent gender reassignment surgery. Due to her life controversies, she and her husband hired lawyers to have their marriage annulled, a famous case known as Corbett v Corbett.

When Ashely suffered a heart condition in Longton, she retired for a few years in the Welsh town of Hay-On-Wye. Good news came as a new law called the Gender Recognition Act 2004, which allowed for the official recognition of Ashley as a woman. She was issued a new birth certificate, and the then deputy prime minister of the UK, John Prescott, helped her with the process. The actress now lives in South West London’s Fulham area.