America’s Next Top Model Contestant Gets Sex Change Surgery Surprise

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America’s Next Top Model Contestant Gets Sex Change Surgery Surprise

November 19, 2008 05:00:56 by Paulene Hinds

Isis King, the transgendered constestant on the eleventh season of America’s Next Top Model received the surprise of her life on Tuesday. Top Model creator and lead judge, Tyra Banks told King that she has arranged a free sex reassignment surgery for her during a pre-taped episode of The Tyra Banks Show that aired yesterday, Us Weekly reported Monday.

“This is not happening!” King said when Banks surprised her with the news, according to Us. “[I feel] like I’m about to wake up.”

Isis King who was born Darnell Walls was unable to complete her tranformation from male to female because she could not afford the $20,000 to $35,000 price tag.

The surgery will be performed and paid for by Dr. Marci Bowers, a gender reassignment surgeon who has experienced the surgery herself, Us reported.

King is the first transgendered contestant in the show’s history and was the fifth girl eliminated from this season’s show.

“I look at it like yes, I’m the first transgender contestant, but okay, lets move past it now,” King explained on The Tyra Banks Show. “I’m just a woman trying to compete just like everyone else.”

King repeated the statement that she made on Top Model to Tyra on her talk show that she felt like she was “born physically male” but “mentally, everything else, I was going female.”

“It’s hard. I try not to think about it because it is something I’m really passionate about,” King told Banks about being transgendered. “I feel like I really was born in the wrong body, and it’s just the one thing that makes me feel uncomfortable.”

Although King wouldn’t allow photos of herself as a male to be shown during Top Model’s eleventh season, she did allow them to air as part of the Tuesday segment on The Tyra Banks Show.

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