Caroline "Tula" Cossey (born 31 August 1954) is an English model. Born Barry Kenneth Cossey, she is one of the world's most well known transsexuals, having appeared in a James Bond film and been the first to pose for Playboy. Since being outed by British tabloid News of the World, Cossey has fought for her right to legally marry a man and to be recognized by the law as a woman.
Caroline(nee Barry) Cossey was born in the village of Brooke, Norfolk, England, and was already somewhat feminine due to having XXXY chromosomes,a condition known as Klinefelter's Syndrome she never got along with her peers,preferring instead the company of her sister Pam,with whom they would play at dressing in their mother's clothing.
At the age of 17, Caroline started hormone therapy and began living as a woman full time,soon after beginning transition she began a career as a showgirl and, after breast augmentation surgery, a topless dancer, working in nightclubs in London, Paris and Rome. After initial shock, Carolines parents were very supportive,what followed was years of hormonal and psychological treatment,legally changing her name,and finally sex reassignment surgery (SRS) on December 31, 1974 at Charing Cross Hospital in London. Post-op, Caroline's career took off. No longer a topless burlesque dancer, she became a highly sought-after glamour model and commercials actress, in an age when her lanky, other-worldly looks were the height of fashion. Caroline even posed in Playboy Magazine in 1981. However, all of this attention would pale in comparison to when she was cast as an extra in "For Your Eyes Only" finally fulfilling her childhood dream of being a Bond girl.
Shortly after the film’s release, in 1982, the tabloid News of the World did what it had been threatening to do for quite a while and revealed that Caroline was a transsexual, which brought her modelling career and hopes of becoming an actress to a halt.
She was in deep despair, but decided to fight it head on. In the same year, she responded by releasing I Am a Woman, her first autobiography, which sought in straightforward terms to defuse the situation by telling the story in full, from her point of view. If anything, the press coverage intensified, but now it was largely sympathetic. Eventually, Tula was able to return to modelling. But a career on a bigger stage was now irretrievably gone.
A confirmed ladies' man ('I love the company of women, love toying with the best looker at the party'), Lynam had been divorced for five years when his eye was taken, in 1979, by Caroline Cossey, a smooth-skinned model who measured 37-24-37. Yet Cossey had a secret. She had once been a man called Barry. 'He was the most wonderful, passionate kisser,' Cossey told the tabloids shortly after Lynam ended their relationship. 'He was very touchy-feely and very physical.' Des, meanwhile, appeared to be suffering from amnesia. 'Unless I was absolutely psychotic,' he said, 'I don't ever remember making love to her.'
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