Pioneering trans model April Ashley could have slept with all four Beatles
The late trans trailblazer April Ashley claimed that she could have slept with all four of the Beatles during her time as a successful model and even enjoyed affairs with film icons Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif.
Trailblazing trans model April Ashley could have slept with all of the Beatles, she claimed.
Ashley, born George Jamieson, was the second British person ever to have gender-reassignment surgery in 1960 and as a successful model found herself in the orbit of the Fab Four.
According to Douglas Thompson's new book 'Inside Out: The Extraordinary Legacy of April Ashley', she bragged: "I could have slept with all the Beatles."
In fact, she even claimed to have turned down Paul McCartney's advances by escaping in a taxi at the Club dell'Aretusa on London's trendy King's Road.
The pioneering model also enjoyed affairs with film stars Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif.
Ashley was born a male in Liverpool in 1935 and was sure that he was a female trapped inside the wrong body.
After being shown that a sex change was possible when he worked as a sailor, he had the seven-hour-long sex reassignment surgery in Casablanca – despite the dire warnings of Dr. Georges Burou about the consequences of the procedure.
Ashley was photographed by such greats as David Bailey and Terry O'Neill but her world came crashing down when the secret of her sex change was revealed by the Sunday People newspaper in 1961.
It was only in 2005 that she was recognised as a female on her birth certificate after The Gender Recognition Act had been passed in the UK the previous year.
Ashley was awarded an MBE in 2012 for her services to transgender equality and a million people came to see the exhibition 'April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady' the year after.
She passed away at the age of 86 in 2021.
