Words: Jamie Tabberer
April Ashley has died at the age of 86, according to reports.
The model, actress and author, who was trans, was one of the first people to undergo gender reassignment surgery in the world, doing so in 1960 at the age of 25.
The star was outed by the tabloids in the 60s, at the height of her modelling career. Her death was first reported today (28 December 2021), by the Daily Telegraph.
During divorce proceedings in 1970, a judge who failed to recognise Ashley as a woman annulled her marriage to Arthur Corbett, ruling it invalid; after the 2005 Gender Recognition Act, Ashley was legally recognised as a woman and given a new birth certificate. The campaigner was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to transgender equality.
“Rest in power”
Liverpool-born Ashley appeared on the cover of Attitude to mark the Virgin Holidays Attitude Awards 2015, winning the Icon Award for Lifetime Achievement, supported by Sky.
In an interview with Attitude conducted by Paris Lees, Ashley shared about her life journey, explaining: “I had to go through six weeks of electric shock treatment as a teenager, which in those days was very primitive. Your eyeballs bled.”
During her career she also appeared in Vogue and was photographed by David Bailey.
It was backstage at the Attitude Awards. I was early in my transition. I was flustered and thanked her for her legacy. She squeezed my hand and kindly said “well aren’t you lovely darling” and that was it. The woman was mobbed. Gay or trans, everyone recognised what she’d done.
— Juno Dawson (@junodawson) December 28, 2021
Responding to the news, writer Juno Dawson tweeted today: “Hearing that April Ashley has passed away. I met her just once, and honestly, it was like meeting the queen. The poise, the grace. An icon. Rest in power.”
Juno added: “It was backstage at the Attitude Awards. I was early in my transition. I was flustered and thanked her for her legacy. She squeezed my hand and kindly said ‘well aren’t you lovely darling’ and that was it. The woman was mobbed. Gay or trans, everyone recognised what she’d done.”
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo about being outed in the 60s, Ashley said: “My career was destroyed, and apart from jobs where you were paid under the table, I never worked again.
“With others, when they found out, my shifts would be changed, my hours reduced, and then they would tell me they didn’t need me… but then advertise for someone else. It was heartbreaking because I would have been a movie star.”
In 2015, she said on Loose Women: “[I wanted to transition] from the moment I could think. We [were] very catholic and I used to kneel down beside the thing I used to sleep on. I can hardly call it a bed because we were so poor. And I would say god bless mummy and god bless daddy and god bless my brothers and sisters and let me wake up a girl.”