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'I went from Grandpa to Grandma at 64'

Monday 02 February 2009

At the tender age of four, Michael Mason* wanted to wear girls' clothes. Sixty years later, the retired father-of-four finally became a transsexual after spending £60,000 to become Michelle. Now she¹s found love with a Tory Party chairman.

"I finally feel complete," says Michelle, now 66, from Hillingdon, Middlesex.

Michelle says she realised at school she was different from other boys. "I cried because I couldn¹t wear skirts like the girls," she recalls. "So I stole a bra and knickers from my mum and wore them under my pyjamas."

But Michael buried his feelings, and married his girlfriend Lillian at 21. "I didn¹t fancy Lillian, but I loved her. Sex was a chore," says Michelle.

The couple had three sons and a daughter, now aged between 28 and 40, and Michael tried to lead a normal life. Michelle says: "I'd heard about sex-change ops, but I felt I had a duty to my kids."

But when his children eventually left home, Michael grew depressed, and in 2004 he secretly bought hormone pills online.

"My depression went away, but I started developing breasts, my testicles shrunk and I became emotional," Michelle recalls.

"By then Lillian and I had stopped having sex. I told her I wanted a sex change and, although she was shocked, she was supportive."

In 2004, the couple divorced and Michael wrote to his kids, telling them the truth. "Luckily, they accepted me," she says.

In January 2005, Michael sold his £200,000 three-bed semi to live in rented accommodation so he could fund his sex-change surgery. He had a hair transplant to cover his bald spot, a nose job, chin contour and eyelid surgery to make him look feminine, and an operation to give him a vagina. Real life story

The following year, Michelle had a facelift, her Adam's apple removed and D-cup breast implants. Eight months on, Michelle started dating a 70-year-old male ex-Conservative councillor, who she won¹t name. She says she was only attracted to men once she became a woman.

She says: "He had no idea about my past, despite having sex, as my body looks female. I thought he¹d leave me when I told him four months into the relationship. He was shocked, but said he wanted to stay with me.

We love snuggling up on the sofa, and we meet friends at our local social club, although they don¹t know about my past."

Michelle's 11 grandchildren, who are aged between 10 months and 13 years old, now call her Grandma, although some do remember her as a man. She says: "My children explained the situation, and they¹ve coped better than many adults.

"Being a woman makes me feel alive, but I don¹t regret being a man because I've got an amazing family to show for it."

By Lisa Woollard