April Ashley, one of the first people in the world to have gender reassignment surgery, has passed away at the age of 86. It was 1960 and I was 24 years old. The trans model, actress, and activist leaves behind a story of struggle and breaking of the molds.
She was born in Liverpool in 1935 as George Jamieson. Her childhood and adolescence was hard knowing that she had been born in the wrong body. Trying to find her place, she enlisted in the Navy at the age of 15 where things did not improve – she tried to commit suicide after being a victim of rape – and she was admitted to a psychiatric center. She moved to London and then to Paris where she began working at the Le Carrousel cabaret, where she saved for her operation in Casablanca, Morocco. She was 25 years old when Dr. Georges Burou said to her upon awakening from anesthesia: “Bonjour, mademoiselle.” That would make her happier than ever, she would say later. April had just been born (in honor of the month that came into the world) Ashley (because she was fascinated by Leslie Howard in her role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind ).
She met Ginger Rogers, Grace Kelly, Elvis Preysler, Fellini, Picasso, Salvador Dalí …. David Bailey and Terence Donovan shot her for Vogue UK. She appeared in The Road to Hong Kong (1962) with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Joan Collins.
In 1963 she married the aristocrat, the third Baron Rowallan, Arthur Cameron Corbett in Gibraltar, a marriage that only lasted 14 days: “I escaped with the heir of the Duke of the Infantado to her palace in Seville.” “We made love with the Goya and Velázquez,” she would tell. The problems lasted considerably longer. Ashley asked him for a pension and Corbett responded by claiming the annulment of the marriage, something that the judge finally ruled in 1970 arguing that she was born a man, something that she knew when they married. She tried again in love, in the 80s, marrying Jeffrey West but their marriage did not work out either.
Before this, he would discover from the hand of Baron Rowallan, the golden age of Marbella, where he ran the Jacaranda club. In Franco’s Spain it is not that it went unnoticed but Marbella, the Spanish bubble of the moment, protected it. “I think they had never seen anything as glamorous as me there. Every morning I galloped with my horse on the beach. They were wonderful times, “he told S Moda, recalling parties at the home of the Marquis of Villaverde and the Duchess of Medinaceli when in 2013 the Liverpool museum dedicated a monographic exhibition to him. That same she received the medal of the British Empire.
It had been almost a decade since she had returned to Great Britain, already legally recognized as a woman thanks to the Gender Recognition Act. In 2015, she advised actor Eddie Redmayne on how to play a trans woman in the film The Danish Girl.
Some spread some rumors, claiming that April Ashley lost her life due to heart disease and spent his last days in the hospital. The cause of death, however, was not revealed.
April Ashley Net Worth
As of 2021, April Ashley Net Worth at the time of her death is $1.6 Million. However, her monthly income is not displayed yet.
Amelia Warner
Amelia Warner writes all the Latest Articles. She mostly covers Entertainment topics, but at times loves to write about movie reviews as well.
