Kellie Maloney: 'David Beckham's grooming regime gave me courage during my transition'

The former boxing promoter says that Beckham’s talk of waxing inspired him to step into beauty parlours

Kellie Maloney

David Beckham inadvertently gave Kellie Maloney, formerly Frank Maloney, the courage to make the next step in becoming a woman.

But Beckham's openness about his grooming regime inspired Maloney confidence to step inside beauty parlours and face some of her identity issues.

“When David Beckham came out, when they started waxing themselves and everything else, I thought, ‘This is good, I can go to the beauty parlour now,’” said Maloney. “I can do things like that and I can say, ‘Well, David Beckham does it, all these footballers do it, what does it matter?”’

Previously Maloney had bought dresses only to return them.

“I’d go into a shop, buy something and I’d come out and feel horrified,” he told Good Morning Britain. “I’d just throw it straight in the bin. I wouldn’t even put them on, I’d just throw them in the bin – it was just a release.’”

Maloney – who formerly managed Lennox Lewis - revealed that she has been secretly living as a woman for a year earlier this week, having been forced to make the announcement after newspaper journalists threatened to run the story.

She also has plans to undergo gender reassignment.

“I was born in the wrong body and I have always known I was a woman,” she told The Mirror.

“I can’t keep living in the shadows; that is why I am doing what I am today. Living with the burden any longer would have killed me.”