Kellie Maloney has revealed that her longest relationship since transitioning came to an end because they ‘wanted to turn her back into Frank’.

The boxing promoter, 71, came out as transgender back in 2014, and in a new interview has shared insight into a ‘toxic’ relationship she’s had with a woman that ‘really messed her head up.’

Kellie was previously known as Frank and enjoyed a successful career as a boxing promoter alongside two marriages and raising three daughters – Emma, 48, Sophie, 28, and Libby, 23. 

Speaking on Best’s Suddenly Single podcast, Kellie shared that she met the woman at a bar in The Algarve, but despite becoming friends she repeatedly asked if she could ‘turn back into Frank.’

The Celebrity Big Brother star, who is single, also shared that she attempted suicide by ‘overdosing on pills’ in the fallout, before being saved by a friend.

Kellie Maloney has revealed that her longest relationship since transitioning came to an end because they ‘wanted to turn her back into Frank’

Tracey, Sophie and Frank Maloney at the launch of his book No Baloney: A Journey from Peckham to Las Vegas in 2003

She said: ‘She said if only I could turn you back into Frank we could have a great relationship. 

‘That really messed my head up. She kept on every day about bringing Frank back and how her dad loved Frank, it was a very toxic friendship. 

‘I went on a big drinking spree, I drank myself silly and overdosed on pills and it was lucky I had a friend staying with me, who found me and called the ambulance. We have spoken to each other since but even the friendship isn’t the same.’ 

Kellie went onto offer insight into dating since transitioning into a woman, saying: ‘The funniest one was in Vilamoura with some girlfriends. We’re sitting a table drinking and there’s a group of guys looking over. 

‘The guy signalled to a waiter and I said in a minute that waiter is going to come over and ask if we want a drink, and if we say yes one of those guys will come over and join us, and if we let him sit, and the rest will follow. 

‘They said, how do you know that Kellie? I said because I was one of them once! And it happened! One of them invited us to a party and said you might get a pleasant surprise. I hadn’t fully transitioned, and I said I think you’ll get a bigger surprise!

‘I’ve dated a couple of women. I’m a mixture of all sorts! Let’s try everything! I don’t really know my sexuality. My gender is who I go to bed as. 

‘My sexuality is who I wake up next to and so far I’ve only woken up next to my Black Russian Terrier who is 60kg!’

The boxing promoter came out as transgende in 2014, and in a new interview has shared insight into a ‘toxic’ relationship she’s had with a woman that ‘really messed her head up’

After coming out as transgender, Kellie split from his second wife Tracey, but she candidly shared that she ‘still loves’ her ex, despite knowing they ‘can’t be together.’

She said: ‘You don’t know how they’re going to fare. You’re destroying their lives as much as you could be destroying your life. I’ve got friends whose wives have totally disowned them and turned their kids against them. 

‘So I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve got someone who is still in my life and never turned my children against me. Living a lie, you’re cheating on the people that love and trust you and it’s very hard to keep that going forever. 

‘It was very hard for my two younger daughters to start with. I love Tracey but I know we can never be together, but we are good friends.’

Kellie also shared that it was partially due to her relationship with her late father she waited until later in life to transition. He died in 2009.

She said: ‘He had me on a pedestal. I was told to leave school at 15 without any qualifications, I was told I’d never do anything in my life but my father pushed me, he told me I could achieve if I tried, and when I signed Lennox and other fighters I became a household name in boxing. 

‘I’d go down the pub in the Walworth Road, my dad would be in there, he’d be this is my son, the pub would stop and I’d have to buy everyone a drink! 

Kellie was previously known as Frank and enjoyed a successful career as a boxing promoter alongside two marriages and raising three daughters – Emma, 48, Sophie, 28, and Libby, 23 

‘I had so much respect for him. I never wanted to lose that respect. I may have even killed myself if my father was alive, I don’t know how it would have ended.’

Kellie admitted that she first realised she was a woman when she was 12 years old, but vowed ‘to fight it until the day she died.’

She added: ‘I read an article by April Ashley when I was about 12 – I saw how they’d destroyed this transexual woman’s life. 

‘She was Vogue model and a dancer and married a Lord and when they found out she was a merchant sailor in a previous life they totally destroyed her. I related to everything in the article – I said that’s me, that’s really what I am. 

‘At that time they said ”sex change”, they didn’t have the word transgender or transexual. I said to myself there is no way I will ever admit to this, I will fight this until the day I die, because I would never want to go through the newspapers…a few years later I read another story about a Bond girl, Tula, very beautiful, who was also born in a male body and they destroyed her, so for the rest of my life I was going to fight it. 

‘I grew up in a world where there was no grey area – if you were gay, you were ridiculed on the streets.’

The star, who has appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Masterchef in recent years, has now released a documentary about her life called Knockout Blonde.

She added: ‘I did lose a lot of things. I lost a career that I lived like a film star in. I travelled first class everywhere, best hotels, never had to queue for anything. That’s all gone. 

‘But I’m happier. I used to get up every day as Frank and look in the mirror and think, who can I upset today? Now I get up and smile and think I’ve got another day of peace.’

Listen to Suddenly Single on Spotify or your preferred podcast platform.