April Ashley
Born	April 25, 1935 (1935-04-25) (age 72)

‎‎April Ashley (born George Jamieson on April 25, 1935) is an English model and restaurant hostess. She was famously outed as a transsexual by the British press in 1961. If you hold the copyright to an image (e. ... is the 115th day of the year (116th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... is the 115th day of the year (116th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... A model is a person who poses or displays for purposes of art, fashion, or other products and advertising. ... While outing often refers to an outdoor excursion, in the late twentieth century the term acquired an additional meaning: taking someone out of the closet - that is, publicising that someone is gay. ... A transsexual (sometimes transexual) person establishes a permanent identity with the opposite gender to their assigned (usually at birth) sex. ...

After an unhappy childhood in Liverpool, as one of six children of a Roman Catholic father and a Protestant mother, she moved to Paris in the 1950s and joined the cast of the cabaret show at the Carousel theater with the famous French entertainer Coccinelle. She had an early sex reassignment procedure in 1960 in Casablanca, Morocco under Dr Georges Burou [1]. April was only the seventh person to receive sex reassignment surgery from Dr. Burou. Burou amputated the penis and testicles. An artifical cavity was created between Ashley's prostate and rectum. The cavity was lined with penile skin. Burou fashioned mock labia majora from Ashley's scrotal skin. There is no medical way to construct a real clitoris so Burou used spongy tissue from Ashley's urethra to function as a mock urethra. The operation was successful but was a total shock to Ashley's system. She lost considerable blood and nearley bled to death. The shock of the operation caused huge patches of her hair to fall out. Some of it later grew back. For other uses, see Liverpool (disambiguation). ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... Album cover for Coccinelle No 1 EP on President Records. ... For specialized articles on surgical procedures, see Sex reassignment surgery male-to-female and Sex reassignment surgery female-to-male. ... For the 1942 film, see Casablanca (movie). ... Georges Burou (circa 1917–1987) was a Moroccan gynecologist who is widely credited with innovating modern sex reassignment surgery for transwomen. ...

After returning to England, Ashley became a successful fashion model, appearing in such publications as Vogue and winning a small role in the film The Road to Hong Kong, which starred Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Her credit, however, was dropped from the film after she was outed as transsexual by the Sunday People in 1961. For other meanings, see vogue. ... The Road to Hong Kong, released in 1962 was the final entry in the long running Road series starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope and the only one of the series not produced by Paramount Pictures. ... Harry Lillis Bing Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death in 1977. ... Bob Hope, KBE (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003), born Leslie Townes Hope, was an English-Born American entertainer who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, on radio and television, in movies, and in performing tours for U.S. Military personnel, well known for his good natured humor and career longevity. ...

She married Hon. Arthur Corbett in 1963, but the marriage did not last. In 1970 Corbett (later 3rd Baron Rowallan) successfully had the marriage annulled on the grounds that Ashley had been born male, which set the precedent for the legal status of transsexuals in the United Kingdom until the UK Gender Recognition Act 2004 came into force. Captain Arthur Cameron Corbett, 3rd Baron Rowallan (December 17, 1919–1993) was a British aristocrat most notable for successfully having his second marriage annulled in 1970 by a court on the grounds that his wife, April Ashley, a transsexual woman, was not recognized as such under then_current UK law. ... Baron Rowallan is a peerage title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. ... Transsexual people are those who establish a permanent identity with the gender opposite to that which they were assigned at birth. ... The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is an Act of Parliament of the British Parliament which allows transsexual people to change their legal gender. ...

After a heart attack in London Ashley retired for some years to the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye. Second-hand bookshop at Hay-on-Wye Hay-on-Wye (Welsh: Y Gelli Gandryll or Y Gelli), often described as the town of books, is a market town in Brecknockshire, Wales, very close to the border with England, within the Brecon Beacons National Park. ...

April Ashley's Odyssey, a biography by Duncan Fallowell, was published in 1982. In 2006, Ashley released her autobiography The First Lady and made TV appearances on Channel Five News, This Morning and BBC News. In one interview, she said, "This is the real story and contains a lot of things I just couldn't say in 1982", including details of her alleged affairs with Michael Hutchence, Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Turner Prize sculptor Grayson Perry and the future 19th Duke of Infantado, among others. However, the book was pulped after it was discovered that it had heavily plagiarized the 1982 book on Ashley^[1] Most of the actors mentioned as being lovers of Ashley have denied the truth of these allegations. Michael Kelland John Hutchence (January 22, 1960 – November 22, 1997) was the original lead singer of the Australian rock band INXS. // Hutchence was born in Sydney, son of Kelland (Kell) and Patricia Hutchence, but was subsequently raised in Hong Kong. ... Peter Seamus OToole (born August 2, 1932, uncertain but presumed correct date[1]) is an eight-time Academy Award-nominated Irish actor. ... For the Pakistani actor of the same name, see Umer Sharif. ... The Turner Prize is an annual prize given to a British visual artist under 50, named after the painter J.M.W. Turner. ... Grayson Perry (born 24 March 1960), is an award-winning English artist, best known for his ceramics and cross-dressing. ...

At one time, Catherine Zeta-Jones was rumoured to being playing April in a film story of her life. Catherine Zeta-Jones (born 25 September 1969) is an Academy Award-winning Welsh actress based in the United States. ...

References

• April Ashley's Odyssey by April Ashley with Duncan Fallowell, London: Jonathan Cape, 1982 ISBN 0-224-01849-3
• The First Lady by April Ashley with Douglas Thompson; London: John Blake Publishing Ltd, 2006, ISBN 1-84454-231-9

1. ^ April Ashley book pulped!

External links

• April Ashley at the Internet Movie Database
• April Ashley's Odyssey The text and pictures from her 1982 book ISBN 0-224-01849-3
• April Ashley's personal website
• April Ashley Photo Gallery Tribute
• How Prescott made a woman out of me - Daily Mail profile, 3rd June 2006
• April Ashley Gallery on the Second Type Women website