Former boxing promoter Kellie Maloney has revealed the reason for going public with her transition was because her family was being harassed by a Sunday newspaper.

The 61-year-old — formerly known as Frank — said that the paper had threatened to go public with the story and even showed up at her daughter's house six weeks ago to try to get a comment from her.

She then decided to tell her story to the Sunday Mirror because she felt that it was a “friendly” paper and that “previously transgender people have been ridiculed in the press and I didn’t want that to happen to me and I didn’t want that to happen to others.

“In a way, it wasn’t my intention,” she said. “I wanted to transition very privately because of my family. They’re going through a lot as well and I wanted them protected.

“Unfortunately, someone exposed me at a group I was going to. I was indoors and one day you get that dreaded knock on the door. It was a journalist — I won’t say from which paper. 

“Obviously I denied all knowledge of it and they said they were going to run the story on the Sunday so I got my lawyers involved and we had to threaten injunctions. That had been going on in February and we kept it under control.”

But then as the story continued to grow, another paper picked up on the news and when talking to Maloney didn’t work, they began showing up at the homes of her family.

While this was going on, Maloney had troubles living as both Kellie and Frank and decided it was time to tell the story in her own way.

“Six weeks ago another newspaper turned up at my house, and then they turned up at my daughter’s house, they turned up at all members of my family’s house. 

“I spoke with my lawyer and a couple of people who have been very good to me and I said, ‘Look, I’m living in a shadow. I’m living in the dark. I can’t go out of my house no more. I’m terrified.’

“I started switching back to Kellie and Frank and my head was getting so confused about it.

“They said: ‘We need to find a paper that would be very friendly’ and I said I’d only do this as long as I’ve got control.”

Maloney said having her story published felt “like a complete release” and the first thing she did was to get her ears pierced because “I can do anything now.

“Because they know. I’m not living two lives any more,” she added.

She admitted that she used to buy women’s clothing and then throw it away and had known she was “different from everyone else” from the age of three or four.

Asked how she felt about any negative comments, she said: “I received so many of them in my boxing business they’d just be like water off a duck’s back now to me. Really, that life has prepared me for this transition.”