[News/People] [UK] 'I am the still the same person, I just look different on the outside': Britain's first transgender newsreader, 50, returns to the screen after undergoing gender reassignment surgery

[Stephanie Stevens]

Daily Mail, UK


'I am the still the same person, I just look different on the outside': Britain's first transgender newsreader, 50, returns to the screen after undergoing gender reassignment surgery

• India Willoughby will become UK's first transgender newsreader tonight
• The 50-year-old is to present ITV Tyne Tees regional programme
• Formerly Jonathan, she worked for ITV Border for 10 years but quit in 2010
• Ms Willoughby underwent £14,000 gender reassignment op last year

By Joseph Curtis For Mailonline

Published: 04:43 EST, 3 October 2016 | Updated: 05:17 EST, 3 October 2016


Britain's first transgender newsreader will make her debut tonight six years after quitting television following a decade of presenting the news as a man.

India Willoughby, 50, will front ITV Tyne Tees regional news programme this evening, one year after undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

Previously Jonathan Willoughby, she worked for ITV Border in the same role but quit in 2010 when she decided she wanted to change gender.

[Photo/Photo: India Willoughby (right), formerly Jonathan (left), will become Britain's first transgender newsreader on ITV Tyne Tees tonight]



[Photo: Ms Willoughby underwent a £14,000 gender reassignment surgery in Brighton last year (pictured) ]

She said: 'ITV have been fantastic, it hasn't been weird or awkward and they have just welcomed me back.

'I didn't feel nervous at all when I walked back through the door again, they made me feel like I was home.

'I am just getting my toes back into the water for now, I have a lot to catch up on from over the last 10 years and all of the technology has changed massively.

'There are obviously a lot of new faces but I can still have the same banter with the old ones - they have realised that I am the still the same person, I just look different on the outside.

'I don't think that there have been people like me in the public eye in this country before - I wouldn't want to make myself out to be some kind of an example or anything but it just shows how the nature of TV has changed for the better.

'I don't think that I would have been accepted a few years ago.'

[Photo: She said she had been 'made to feel at home' by staff at ITV Tyne Tees headquarters, pictured]

[Photo/Photo: Ms Willoughby (right) said she has enjoyed chatting to colleagues who knew her from when she was Jonathan (left) and that 'everyone has realised I am still the same person']

In a video promoting her return, she added she was 'really looking forward to getting back on air'.

She said she had a 'lot to learn' due to the changes in the job over the past few years, but was ready for the challenge.

[Photo: In her previous life as Jonathan, pictured, she presented for ITV Border for a decade]

Ms Willoughby said she felt appearing as a man 'was not being true to herself' and made the decision over her gender in 2010 after seeing her male reflection while interviewing a politician.

She then said she 'juggled two parallel lives' for five years, dressing as a woman for a PR job in Newcastle and dressing as a man at weekends while spending time with her son in Cumbria.  

Last September she made her transition permanent and had a £14,000 operation at an NHS hospital in Brighton.

After deciding she wanted to return to her 'dream job' of broadcasting, she rejoined ITV last month.  

Ms Willoughby, who's new first name was chosen by her mother, admitted that she had fears about being accepted as a woman, but said 'what's inside is the important bit'.

She said: 'The way I explain it that it is like having a Ferrari engine but the bodywork on the outside is a Ford - so what would that make the car?

[Video]

'It runs like a Ferrari and has the inside bits of a Ferrari but the cosmetics on the outside it what is holding it back.

'It is obviously what is inside that is the important bit. People put being trans into the same category as LGBT - but this is weird because being trans has nothing to do with who you want to take to bed.

'It has nothing at all to do with sexuality, and people seem to misunderstand this.

'It is about being born into the wrong body, which I was.'


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3819347/I-person-just-look-different-outside-Britain-s-transgender-newsreader-50-returns-screen-undergoing-gender-reassignment-surgery.html