Boxing legend, manager of Lennox Lewis and UKIP candidate, formerly known as Frank Maloney, has come out as trangender.

Kellie Maloney revealed in an interview with the Sunday Mirror that she felt she had always had a “female brain”, but that she feared coming out over how the boxing world would react.

Maloney, 61, told the Mirror that she now plans to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

“I was born in the wrong body and I have always known I was a woman,” she said.

“I can’t keep living in the shadows, that is why I am doing what I am today. Living with the burden any longer would have killed me.”

The former UKIP candidate caused controversy in 2010, when she stood in the 2010 General Election, by coming out against same-sex marriage, and previously saying she would ban pride marches.

Maloney told the BBC previously she would not campaign in the London borough of Camden, because there were “too many gays”.

She also spelled “Britian” wrong on campaign posters, but later claimed the miss-spelling was intended as a talking point, and was made on purpose.

Some fans took the announcement as a hoax, and others responded with disbelief, however Maloney got many messages of support for being open.