Later Life
After a heart attack in London, Ashley retired for some years to the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye. In her book "April Ashley's Odyssey" she stated that Amanda Lear was born male as Alain Tapp and they had worked together at Le Carousel where Lear had used the name Peki d'Oslo. Ashley was once great friends with Lear, but according to Ashley's book The First Lady, the two women had a major falling out and haven't spoken in years.
In the 1980s, Ashley married Jeffrey West, on the retired cruise ship RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California; and by all accounts is still married to same.
In 2005, after the passage of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, Ashley was finally legally recognised as a female and issued with a new birth certificate. The then Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Prescott, who knew Ashley from the 1950s, helped her with the procedure.
Most recently Ashely gave talks on her life at St George's Hall in Liverpool as part of the city's Homotopia festival on 15 November 2008, and on 18 February 2009 at the South Bank Centre.
Ashley presently lives on her own in Fulham, West London.
Ashley was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to transgender equality.
Read more about this topic: April Ashley
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