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Caroline Cossey

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Caroline Cossey
Born
Barry Kenneth Cossey

(1954-08-31) 31 August 1954 (age 70)
Brooke, Norfolk, England
Other namesTula
Spouses
Elias Fattal
​
​
(m. 1989; annul. 1989)​
David Finch
​
(m. 1992)​
Modelling information
Height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1]
Hair colourBrown
Eye colourGreen

Caroline Cossey (born 31 August 1954[2]) is a British model and actress who often worked under the name Tula, which she also used for two memoirs. She appeared in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as an extra. Following her appearance in the film, she was outed as transgender by British tabloid News of the World. In 1991, she became the first trans woman to pose for Playboy.[3] Cossey has since then fought for her right to legally marry and be legally recognised as a woman.

Biography

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Early life and transition

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Cossey was born in Brooke, Norfolk and assigned male at birth. Through puberty, Cossey was distinctly feminine in appearance due to an intersex variation of XXXY syndrome (which she was unaware of until adulthood).[1][4] In Cossey's autobiography My Story, she describes an unhappy childhood, where she suffered confusing feelings and bullying by peers due to her femininity.[4] Growing up, Cossey's closest companion was her sister, Pam, with whom she played dress-up in their mother's clothes.[1] Cossey left formal schooling when she was fifteen and found work in a clothing store and as a butcher's apprentice. At sixteen, she moved to London and worked at a variety of low-wage jobs.[4]

Cossey started transitioning while working as an usherette in London's West End.[4] By seventeen, Cossey was receiving hormone therapy and working full-time as a showgirl.[4] Following her breast augmentation surgery, Cossey worked as a showgirl in Paris and as a topless dancer in Rome, so she could save money for her sex reassignment surgery. After years of hormone therapy, Cossey had her final surgery on December 31, 1974, at Charing Cross Hospital, London.[1] Doctors discovered her XXXY syndrome during pre-surgery testing, at age 20.[1][4]

Modelling career

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Cossey began an active social life as a woman, concealing her transition.[4] Asked about her dating life, Cossey replied, "I'm afraid I went a little wild."[1] She told tabloids she had a romance with the television presenter Des Lynam, though Lynam says he does not recall it.[5] Lynam however mentions going on dates with her in his autobiography. Cossey worked as a model under the name "Tula". She appeared in top magazines such as Australian Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and worked extensively as a glamour model. She was a Page Three Girl for the British tabloid The Sun and appeared in Playboy in 1991.[4]

In 1978, Cossey won a part on the game show 3-2-1. A tabloid journalist then contacted her, revealing he had discovered she was transgender, and planned to write about it. Other journalists researched her past, attempting to interview her family members. Cossey dropped out of the show, convincing the producers to release her from her contract. After this incident, Cossey purposefully maintained a lower profile, accepting only smaller assignments.[4]

Outing by the tabloid press

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Cossey was cast as an extra in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.[6] Shortly after the film's release, the tabloid News of the World came out with a front-page headline "James Bond Girl Was a Boy". By her own accounts, Cossey was so upset she contemplated suicide. However, she continued her modelling career by focusing, once again, on smaller assignments.[4] Cossey then responded by releasing I Am a Woman, which was her first autobiography.[7]

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In 1985, Cossey appeared extensively in the video for The Power Station's "Some Like It Hot", while also appearing in the band's video for "Get It On".

On 27 September 1990, the European Court of Human Rights overturned its prior decision,[further explanation needed] following a British government appeal.[1] Subsequently, the right of transgender people in the United Kingdom to change their legal sex would not be granted until the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Following this and her annulment, Cossey returned to modelling, which she had given up four years earlier.[1]

She was featured in the September 1991 issue of Playboy in the pictorial "The Transformation of Tula", as an acknowledged transgender person.[8]

Autobiography

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In 1991, Cossey released My Story, which was her second and final autobiography. In it she gave details of her transition, her relationship with Fattal, and her unsuccessful battle with the European Court of Human Rights.

Personal life

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Relationships

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Cossey became engaged to Count Glauco Lasinio, an Italian advertising executive, who was the first man to date her knowing of her past. He encouraged her to petition for changes in the British law concerning transsexuals. The engagement ended, but her legal efforts continued for seven years, eventually reaching the European Court of Human Rights.[1][9]

After breaking up with Lasinio, Cossey met Elias Fattal, a businessman, who was unaware of her history until he proposed marriage on St. Valentine's Day 1988. When she told him, rather than rejecting her, Fattal merely asked if she would convert to Judaism. She agreed.[1] They were married on 21 May 1989, which was weeks after the European Court of Human Rights decided legally to recognise Tula as a woman. They returned from their honeymoon to find that the News of the World had published a story on their wedding, which led Fattal to seek an annulment.

In 1992, Cossey married Canadian engineering student David Finch.[10][11]

Published works

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Cossey published two autobiographies during her lifetime, and these include the following:

  • Caroline Cossey (1982). I Am a Woman. Sphere. ISBN 0-7221-0583-5.
  • Caroline Cossey (1991). My Story. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-16251-7.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Edgren, Gretchen (September 1991). "The transformation of Tula (transsexual Caroline Cossey)". Playboy. 38 (9): 102. Archived from the original on 6 December 2004. Cossey was originally born Barry … Before she could be accepted as a suitable candidate, doctors administered various tests … Tula has three X and one Y chromosomes
  2. ^ "How This Transgender Supermodel Found Love". The Advocate. 3 November 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Tula: The Transsexual Bond Girl". Retrieved 26 May 2015
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cossey, Caroline (1991). My Story. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-16251-7. I see myself as I was then, a small, anxious boy hiding amongst the bean rows … I would lie on my bed and dream that I was somebody else … I was a girl trapped inside a male form. … As I lay dreaming on my bed all those years ago, I had no way of knowing that I had been born between two sexes … To me at the age of twenty this meeting with Dr R … Dr R discovered that I had three Xs to my one Y.
  5. ^ "Sporting kiss and tell's", 8 May 2005, Observer Sport Monthly, The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2007
  6. ^ "21 Transgender People Who Influenced American Culture". Time.
  7. ^ Høeg, Henning (23 November 2006). "Bondpigen var mand" [Bond girl was a man]. BT (in Danish). Retrieved 1 November 2007.
  8. ^ Clements, Marcelle (15 September 1991). "Beauty/Fashion; The Mirror Cracked". The New York Times. p. 71. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  9. ^ "Reported and notable cases". Henri Brandman & Co. Solicitors. Retrieved 1 November 2007.
  10. ^ McCann, Wendy (16 March 1992). "A '90s odd couple: Montreal man to marry transsexual". Kitchener-Waterloo Record. The Canadian Press. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013.
  11. ^ McCann, Wendy (16 March 1992). "Montreal man to marry British transsexual model". The Hamilton Spectator. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
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