Kellie Maloney: Becoming a woman in the world of boxing

Story highlights Boxing promoter Kellie Maloney, previously Frank, discusses transitioning Has returned to the sport, managing two fighters for first time as a woman CNN — Christmas Day nearly three years ago, one of Britain’s best-known sports personalities woke up in a London park; two dogs were licking his face, a smashed bottle of wine lay by his side, and prescription pills were strewn across the ground. “And I’m doing that as the person I always believed I should be – as Kellie Maloney.” From Frank to Kellie — After transitioning in March 2014, British boxing promoter Frank Maloney is now Kellie. Courtesy Kellie Maloney/Blink Publishing Lennox Lewis — In another life, Frank Maloney was one of the Britain's most successful boxing promoters, managing world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and guiding other fighters to various titles. “I had to be this larger-than-life character, I had to keep up this tough-guy image,” she says of a job that consumed her “24-7.” “I never had much chance to think about it during the day – it was only at night when I was alone in the hotel bedroom that the feelings would come back and I’d have the odd tear.” Just ‘one of the boys’ The eldest of three boys growing up in a working-class Irish Catholic family in Peckham, south London, Maloney says she realized she was different from her brothers from the age of three. Courtesy Kellie Maloney/Blink Publishing Maloney’s three daughters – who still call her “dad” – have been equally accepting, with eldest Emma staying by her side while she’s had over £100,000 worth of surgery to feminize her appearance.