WE BECAME WOMEN - AND FOUND LOVE!

After living a double life, Gail Claremont Goulet, 67, got her happily ever after

- LUCY LAING, JOHANNA BELL

Smiling at the shop assistant as she folded a stunning blue dress into a bag, I was aware that - with my wedding ring as a clue - she probably assumed I was a loving husband buying a present for my lucky wife.

But the truth was, my new purchase was all for me.

Not that I'd ever wear it out - like all my other dresses, it was destined for my secret hiding place at the back of the wardrobe, where it would stay until I got the house to myself and could slip it on and feel like the woman I longed to be. It was 2011, and I had been living a lie for as long as I could remember.

WRONG BODY

I was just four when I realised I was in the wrong body. 'Can I wear that dress?' I'd begged my mum at my birthday party as I'd watched, mesmerised, as one of my friends twirled around in her pink frock.

'Boys don't wear dresses, Graeme,' she'd snapped, and that was that.

But the older I got, the more confused I felt. As a teenager, while my voice dropped and facial hair grew, I tried to fight puberty by experimenting with hair dye and nail polish. But I'd hide my hands under the kitchen table and my dad would tell me to get my hair cut almost daily.

I resorted to buying hippy-style clothes - kaftans and flowy trousers the closest I could get to the dresses I longed to wear. 'Why don't you wear proper clothes?' Dad would say. My parents could never understand what I was going through, and with hardly any friends, I had nobody to confide in. So, I acted like a man to make everybody feel comfortable.