Boxing icon Kellie Maloney opens up about her life and relationships 10 years after transitioning

10 years on from transitioning, iconic English boxing promoter Kellie Maloney (71) has opened up about what life is like for her in 2024, and revealed why her longest friendship had to come to an end.

Speaking on the Suddenly Single podcast, Maloney said that she had a “toxic”, albeit platonic, relationship with a woman that “really messed her head up”.

The two friends met at a bar in the Algarve and were very close, but sadly it appears the woman could not fully accept Maloney’s transition.

After Maloney began transitioning in 2014, the woman would apparently repeatedly tease a potential relationship with Maloney, but only if the boxing promoter could “turn back into Frank”, referring to Maloney’s deadname.

“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,” Maloney explained.

This situation led Maloney to go on a “big drinking spree” and she even “overdosed on pills” but was saved by another friend who called an ambulance and helped her.

Previously speaking to the Mirror about the relationship with this woman and her attempted suicide, Maloney said it was her daughter who later made her see sense and check into a psychiatric hospital in Portugal.

“That was probably the shock I needed to get my life in order. Up to then I was probably looking for someone to come into my life. I then let someone into my life that I shouldn’t have let in. Nothing sexual happened. It could have.”

“That’s when I realised I don’t need people in my life because I have feelings and I don’t need those feelings turned upside down,” she continued.

Despite this woman wanting Maloney to “turn back into Frank”, she says that some parts of him remain in her and are combined with who she is now: “To me that’s very important because Frank never died. All he did was change the outside wrappings and got his body to match her brain.”

Maloney also discussed her experiences dating as a trans woman and opened up about her sexuality while appearing on the podcast.

“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,” she joked.

Maloney split from her second wife Tracey after she came out as trans but despite knowing they “can’t be together”, Maloney said she “still loves” her ex.

They are still good friends to this day, and share two daughters together. She previously said that Tracey was “very supportive” of Maloney’s transition, which happened later in life because she didn’t want to come out while her father was still alive – he died in 2009.

“He had me on a pedestal. 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,” she said.