A 57-year-old transgender woman with three children came out after years of “cross-dressing” in private, following the death of her wife of 30 years, saying she had “settled for a life that was a lie”. Cherylin Hall, a production line worker from Corby, Northamptonshire, always felt like she was meant to be a woman – but, growing up in the 1970s, she feared she would not be accepted by society if she were to come out as trans.
Instead, she decided to “live a lie” and settle for a life as a man, getting married and having children. Now, she admits she fell in love with her wife partly because she wanted to look like her.
Cherylin’s wife died in 2019 from cancer, at which point Cherylin realised life is too short to pretend she is a man, as inside, she had always felt female. Cherylin always knew she wanted to be a woman, saying: “I used to watch my mum put her make-up on, thinking ‘when can I do that?’
