I love A Success Story - April Ashley

Britain's First Transsexual Reveals: Elvis wanted Me, Michael Hutchence Had Ne, But I Fancied John Prescott

April Ashley MBE, a former Vogue model

Born in Liverpool in 1935, April Ashley MBE, a former Vogue model and actress was one of the first people in the world to undergo pioneering gender reassignment surgery. As one of the most famous transgender individuals and a tireless campaigner for transgender equality, she is an icon and inspiration to many.

By Amanda Killelea
September 2013

She bewitched Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Elvis Presley and INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.

And at the age of 78 (2103), April Ashley still has the power to stop men in their tracks.

But the first Briton to have full sex-change surgery admits to an unusual crush.

She always fancied Labour’s ex-deputy Prime Minister, her old friend John Prescott.

“We worked together in the 1950s,” she explains. “He was a commis chef and I was in charge of the bar and restaurant. "He was incredibly nice and very, very handsome, like a young Marlon Brando. He was a sweet, shy, very elegant young man.

"I can see why his wife Pauline fell for him. He was more than dapper– he was strapping. He was just a lovely young man.”

Over the years April and John, now Lord Prescott, have kept in touch.

But they had not seen each other for many years before he opened an exhibition of photos covering her extraordinary life this week. 

“I am so touched that John came to open the exhibition,” she says.

"He was incredibly nice and very, very handsome, like a young Marlon Brando. He was a sweet, shy, very elegant young man.

"I can see why his wife Pauline fell for him. He was more than dapper– he was strapping. He was just a lovely young man.”

Over the years April and John, now Lord Prescott, have kept in touch.

But they had not seen each other for many years before he opened an exhibition of photos covering her extraordinary life this week.

“I am so touched that John came to open the exhibition,” she says.

Speaking of the incident when her old pal thumped an egg-throwing protestor, she reveals: “I was dying to tell him that if someone threw an egg at me I would have decked them too. But I’d have done it with my handbag!”.

April’s still-elegant appearance in her late 70s gives no clue to the struggles of her early life when she was born as George Jamieson in the slums of Liverpool.

“It was a tough life at the beginning, very tough indeed,” she says. “I couldn’t tell anyone I felt I should have been born a girl.

“My mother wouldn’t speak to me. When I would go shopping with her, people would say to her ‘What is it?’ My brothers and sisters wouldn’t speak to me.

“I was brought up a strict Roman Catholic so I would talk to God all the time and beg to wake up as a girl.”

At 14 George ran away to join the Merchant Navy, trying to prove his masculinity. But what followed were years of soul-searching, suicide bids, and even electric shock treatment in a mental hospital.

At 20, after working in a Welsh hotel with John Prescott, she moved to Paris– and became April. She was the compere of a drag club, Le Carrousel, and won the attention of famous men.

Artists Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso wanted her as their muse, and Elvis Presley bought her champagne every time he saw her.

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Still, it hasn’t been an easy life. You have to be resilient. You can’t let people crush you. - April Ashley