Former boxing manager Kellie Maloney greeted Year 12 and Year 13 students at The Knights Templar School for an Engaging Minds talk on Friday 15th January.
The 62 year old is most famous for being the manager of former World Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis in the 1990s and early 2000s. As well as being notorious outside of the ring, the Peckham born promoter has also tried her hands at punditry, politics and reality TV, participating in Celebrity Big Brother in 2014. Her diverse experience was the foundation of a fascinating discussion with the students.
Born Frank; Maloney announced in 2014 that she should be known as ‘Kellie’. Maloney then announced later that she was going to undertake gender reassignment.
After receiving counselling, hormone therapy, voice coaching sex reassignment surgery, Maloney announced that she had fully transitioned in April 2015.
“I was really happy when it happened,” remarked Maloney. “At first it was shocking for some, especially for my daughters and the media. But now I am able to live the life I want. Turning from a man to a woman felt like I was putting on a suit and going on stage. Becoming a woman let me find an inner peace."
“The support of my family has made such a difference to me.”
Maloney spoke candidly to Sixth Formers in a Q&A at the school. “I hated school and I was picked on at school a lot,” said Maloney. “Boxing was really a way to really express myself as a person.”
Having retired from management in 2013, Maloney has now returned to the industry managing two ‘up-and-coming’ boxers for the first time as a woman. She told students that she hopes to make both British champions within five years.
KTS students were captivated by the talk. Year 13s James Cook remarked that the talk: “Opened my mind on a subject I wasn’t aware of; it was really interesting.”
Maloney tweeted later that day that the students were a “great group to chat with and so understanding and open.”