When opening up about her childhood, Holly Branson says she feels 'lucky' that her business magnate father and mother Joan Templeman were both 'really accepting' of her decision.
- Jul 6, 2021
AceShowbiz - Richard Branson's daughter has opened up about her "quite unusual" childhood. When speaking to British TV presenter Natalie Pinkham in her podcast, Holly Branson revealed that she had spent nearly 7 years identifying herself as a boy.
The 39-year-old made the revelation while appearing on a recent episode of "In the Pink" podcast. "I, at the age of four, decided I was a boy. It was just after my brother was born and I don't know whether looking back on it now it was some sort of psychological thing that a boy was born and was getting lots of attention and I wanted to be like him," she told the host.
"It wasn't that I wanted to be a boy, it was that I was a boy. I absolutely believed I was a boy - I stood up to pee, I dressed like a boy, I even gave myself different male names," the former junior doctor further divulged. "This wasn't just a quick thing that stopped after a few months or years, it lasted until I was nearly 11. It was quite unusual, especially at that time [because] it was nearly 40 years ago."
Holly, who shares three children with husband Freddie Andrewes, said she felt "lucky" that her parents Richard and Joan Templeman were both "really accepting" of her decision. "They didn't question any of it, they let me be who I wanted to be," she raved.
Holly went on to spill the "turning point" for her to reclaim her femininity. "When I was 11, I asked my mum for a dress for Christmas," she recalled. "She thought, 'I'm not going to give Holly a dress from me as it feels too pressurised,' so she got one of our family friends to get me a dress and they did and that was the turning point. From then on, I was back to being female Holly."
