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'Human Ken Doll’ comes out as trans: ‘I’ve always felt like Barbie’
The reality TV star who is known as the ‘human Ken Doll’ has come out as transgender, adding that she feels much more like Barbie than the doll’s iconic male companion.
Rodrigo Alves, 36, who starred on Celebrity Big Brother UK, told The Mirror on Sunday that she identifies as a woman and prefers to be called the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’.
“I’m known as Ken but inside I’ve always felt like Barbie,” the Brazilian-Brit told the paper, adding that she prefers to be called Roddy now.
“I finally feel like the real me. Glamorous, beautiful and feminine”.
From Ken to Barbie
Over the years Roddy has famously spent more than $650,000 (almost AU$1 million) on transforming her body into a ‘Ken Doll,’ going under the knife to remove ribs and implant a ‘fake’ six-pack and arm muscles.
She also had several nose procedures, a butt lift and a ‘cat-eye’ lift to slant her eyes, and is now planning more plastic surgery to begin her transition from male to female.
“For years I tried to live my life as a man. I had a fake six-pack put in, I had fake muscles in my arms, but I was lying to myself,” she told the Mirror.
A post shared by Rodrigo Alves (@rodrigoalvesuk) on Jan 5, 2020 at 1:03am PST
The former flight attendant said she is approaching ‘the final step’ of her transition, which will include a forehead reshaping, Adam's apple removal and breast implants.
“I’ll be able to wear dresses that show my cleavage and look sexy. I’m very excited,” she said.
“I’m a woman and have always had a feminine brain. Now, my body matches my mind”.
A post shared by Rodrigo Alves (@rodrigoalvesuk) on Jan 4, 2020 at 3:39pm PST
To kick off her life living as a woman, the TV personality has removed all previous posts from her Instagram page, with the oldest picture now going back just a few days.
“I lived as a caterpillar for 36 years now I am a butterfly and I am ready to fly,” she captioned a glamour shot shared on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Roddy appeared on British TV show This Morning where she apologised to hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby for ‘lying’ to them in earlier interviews.
“This is the real me - I’m sorry I told lies over the years of seven years being interviewed by you both,” she said.
“I don’t have a shadow of a doubt about being a woman. I still have more plastic surgeries to do, I will have my breasts enlarged, voice surgery - so I have a more female voice, and in a year I will have my gender reassignment surgery,” she revealed.
Additional reporting by Dillon Thompson.
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