Trans man announces plans to marry his mother’s best friend on live television
A trans man took to ITV’s This Morning programme earlier this week and announced his intention to marry his mother’s best friend. The newly engaged couple found support in the groom-to-be’s mother.
19-year-old Bobby Barnes who has lived as a man for four years, revealed his plans to marry his mother’s best friend, Donna Price, on the ITV programme on Wednesday.
The show, which was hosted by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, also included his mother Tracey Barnes who said she was completely supportive of her son’s decision to marry Price.
Bobby began hormone treatments at the age of fifteen and he is now waiting for gender reassignment surgery.
Mrs Barnes said: “I always knew. He was always a tomboy. He was misbehaving one day when he was little and I said ‘What do I have to do to make you behave?’ he told me that he wanted to have a boy’s haircut and a boy’s school uniform like his brothers and so that’s what I did. It has never been a secret. I always said not to lie about anything, just be honest.”
In the interview, Mr Barnes explained that he knew from the age of four that he identified as male.
He said: “From day one I always felt this. It just came naturally. It has been a bit of a struggle, but with my mum’s support it went quite smoothly. I got a bit of gip at school, but the more I have explained to people the better it has been.”
His fiancé, Ms Price said she knew Bobby when he was still young as she was good friends with his mother but they eventually lost touch.
On the programme, she even joked: “I went with Tracey to get his first short back and sides.”
Bobby said he never forgot Price and he immediately felt an attraction as soon as he spotted her in a pub last August.
His fiancé recounted: “I bumped into him, said ‘alright bab’, I didn’t think I would be walking out of the pub with him because I was there to kiss someone else! But then Bobby spun me around and just kissed me.”
The couple said that they fell in love instantly but Ms Price admitted she was nervous about telling his mother.
However, Mrs Barnes was overjoyed that Bobby and Ms Price had found each other and said that she felt relieved because Ms Price already knew everything about Bobby.
The bride-to-be explained: “I was scared because his mum Tracey was my old friend and I have known him from such a young age … but I don’t need to care about people’s feelings now as long as I know I love him, because we are going to spend the rest of our lives together. And Tracey said she was glad he was with me.”
Mrs Barnes said she felt relieved she was not the only one who knew about Bobby’s transition anymore.
