Big Brother’s Hallie fought off transphobic bullies after transitioning during her school days to be proudly crowned as prom queen.
Her mother Samantha said she was brutally beaten up by savage tormentors at the age of 12 after she returned to school after the summer holidays wearing girls’ uniform.
Recalling the horrific incident Samantha told the Mirror: ‘Some boys were waiting at the bottom of the stairs and when she came down they kicked her and stamped on her.’
Samantha told how her daughter – now a youth worker and, at the age of 18, the youngest housemate on the current series of ITV’s Big Brother – was verbally abused by her bullies who would tell her ‘you’re a man’ or ‘you’re a boy’ in a bid to hurt her.
But Hallie, who was born Harry, fought back and refused to be anything but her authentic self.
Inspirational: Big Brother’s Hallie, 18, fought off transphobic bullies after transitioning during her school days to be proudly crowned as prom queen
Troubles: Her mother Samantha (pictured) said she was brutally beaten up by tormentors at the age of 12 after she returned to school after the summer holidays wearing girls’ uniform
Three years after she was beaten up, Hallie had the last say in her battle against her bullies when she was voted prom queen by her peers at her South London school.
Samantha said: ‘She was voted prom queen. I picked her up and she came prancing towards the car with her crown on.’
Hallie chose not to tell her story on the night of Big Brother earlier this month but had a change of heart the following day.
During a conversation round the dining table she said: ‘Hey guys, I just have something to say. Yesterday I feel like I wasn’t being 100% authentic in myself.
‘I thought I’d let everyone know I’m trans, if you didn’t know already. I just thought I’d make that loud and clear. I’m a trans woman if you didn’t know.’
She later shared her plans for the £100,000 prize money if she was named winner of the series, saying she would complete her transition by getting private gender reassignment surgery than waiting for NHS services.
Hallie told fellow housemates Kerry and Jenkin that if she won the ITV show, she would spend £30k of the money on Feminising Genital Surgery.
She said: ‘If I win I’m going to get a vagina. Designer vagina. And I’m going to pay my mum back for all the years she paid for my treatment.
Awful: Samantha told how her daughter – now a youth worker and, at the age of 18, the youngest housemate on the current series of Big Brother – was verbally abused by her bullies (Hallie, right, meets Big Brother hosts AJ Odudu, left, and Will Best, centre, on launch night this month)
An emotional Kerry asked how much it would cost, to which Hallie replied: ‘Like 30 grand. The mind doesn’t match the body. That’s the best way to describe being trans. I have a female mind, but the body doesn’t match.’
Hallie told how her mother had put herself into debt to fund her hormone treatment and how at one point she came off the medication because the private prescription was too expensive.
Samantha explained how Hallie was referred to a gender clinic and waited two years until she was 16 before they had an appointment.
But they were told they would not get a prescription for treatment because Hallie was under the age of 18 at the time.
Samantha said each prescription was £350, not including any consultation fees, and she had to stop funding Hallie’s treatment at Christmas last year after she maxed out four credit cards.
But Samantha insisted she would do it ’10 times over’ and funded further treatment before Hallie went into the Big Brother house as Hallie told her in tears: ‘I can’t go on Big Brother and deteriorate on TV.’
While Samantha said she knew her daughter was transgender from the age of two, she went on to say she has always accepted Hallie as her a girl from the moment she explained she had been born in the wrong body when she was in year eight at school.
She said Hallie would always wear Disney princess dresses when she was in the reception class, adding that Hallie would ask people to call her Charlotte.
Opening up: Hallie has revealed she would spend part of the £100k prize money on ‘a new vagina’
Sweet moment: It comes after Hallie came out as transgender to her fellow housemates, admitting she felt she wasn’t being ‘authentic’ by not telling them
Trailblazer: Nadia Almada, now 46, was crowned champion of series 5 in 2004 and made history as the first ever transgender contestant to star on the Channel 4 programme (Nadia, left, pictured with then Big Brother host Davina McCall, right, in 2004)
Champ: Trans man Luke Anderson won the show in 2012 (Luke is seen here entering the house ahead of his series in 2012)
Hallie is not the first transgender housemate to appear on Big Brother – trans woman Nadia Almada won the show in in 2004 and trans man Luke Anderson triumphed in 2012.
On what made her apply to be on Big Brother, Hallie said before entering the house: ‘Just the whole experience. I feel like Big Brother is the biggest social experiment and I want to be a part of it.
‘It’s about getting my face out there and just having fun, enjoying life. I’m only 18 so I didn’t grow up watching it but as I got older, I would watch clips on YouTube and stuff, so I’ve been a fan. And yeah, just for fun, really?’
Big Brother returns on Sunday 22 October at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.
BIG BROTHER 2023: MEET THE CONTESTANTS!
JENKIN
AGE: 25
PROFESSION: Barman
FROM: Bridgend
HOW WOULD YOUR FRIENDS DESCRIBE YOU? ‘Loud and messy, and irritating probably.’
TOM
AGE: 21
PROFESSION: Butcher
FROM: Somerset
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LIKELY TO GET NOMINATED FOR? ‘I think I might potentially offend some people. My mouth moves faster than my brain.’
TRISH
AGE: 33
PROFESSION: Stay-at-home mum
FROM: Luton
WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH THE PRIZE MONEY IF YOU WON? ‘I think my first priority is to sort out my housing situation. The housing crisis is just ridiculous and my housing situation has been unstable. It brings me a lot of mum guilt because I’ve got a young child. It’s my biggest incentive and motivation to win.’
JORDAN
AGE: 25
PROFESSION: Lawyer
FROM: Scunthorpe
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LIKELY TO GET NOMINATED FOR? ‘Being cantankerous and acting as if I don’t want to be there even if I do in my heart. They might nominate me for being disengaged perhaps or not paying everyone an equal amount of attention. They may feel left out but I can’t help that.’
DYLAN
AGE: 39
PROFESSION: DJ
FROM: Coventry
TELL US AN INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOURSELF: ‘I appeared on a TV show called The Last Leg about amputees – two years before I lost my leg!’
NOKY
AGE: 26
PROFESSION: Banker
FROM: Derby
WHAT MADE YOU APPLY TO BECOME A BIG BROTHER HOUSEMATE? ‘I love challenges. I’ve had so many amazing times in my life, like going to Miss Universe as Miss Great Britain. I like to do something different and I think this is the next challenge I want to conquer. I want to show people what pageant girls are really like and disprove a lot of stereotypes around them. I also show what it’s like being a woman who’s worked in male- dominated fields. I want to show that women are capable of doing anything they want.’
PAUL
AGE: 23
PROFESSION: Security officer
FROM: Liverpool
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LIKELY TO GET NOMINATED FOR? ‘Being the biggest wind up, eating all the food and being the loudest housemate.’
OLIVIA
AGE: 23
PROFESSION: Dancer
FROM: Glasgow
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LIKELY TO GET NOMINATED FOR? ‘I think when people are in that hangry state, that’s when I’ll wind people up and grind their gears. I think they’ll nominate me for being full on, and for my brutal honesty and oversharing of opinions.’
HALLIE
AGE: 18
PROFESSION: Youth worker
FROM: London
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LIKELY TO GET NOMINATED FOR? ‘Being lazy and having an opinion. I’m quite opinionated, I like speaking my mind and not many people like that. I’m quite real.’
YINRUN
AGE: 25
PROFESSION: Customer support agent
FROM: Harrogate
WHAT PART OF THE EXPERIENCE ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? ‘I’m most excited about being surrounded by so many people from different walks of life. I don’t think I will ever live in a house again with so many different kinds of people. I’m from China and I think it will help me be more immersed in British culture.’
CHANELLE
AGE: 29
PROFESSION: Dental therapist
FROM: Llanelli
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LIKELY TO BE NOMINATED FOR? ‘Probably just for being annoying. In Wales, we have this saying, “I’ll do it now in a minute.” So like, if I went to make food and I left a dish on the side, I have all good intentions of washing it but I’d be like, “I’ll do it now in a minute,” and it might be three hours later before I do it. So probably for silly stuff like that.’
MATTY
AGE: 24
PROFESSION: Doctor
FROM: Isle Of Man
HOW WOULD YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY DESCRIBE YOU? ‘They would say I’m quite like a lucky person or someone who really wants to experience life to its fullest and do everything that it has to offer. Someone who is kind and fun and doesn’t take life too seriously.’
HENRY
AGE: 25
PROFESSION: Food writer
FROM: Cotswolds
HOW WOULD YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY DESCRIBE YOU? ‘I think they would say I’m particularly sociable and very chatty. I mean, I’ll be honest, my parents would definitely say I’m a bit of a snob but I take it as a compliment. I think it means you’ve got high standards and good taste. They’d say I was quite a peculiar child.’
KERRY
AGE: 40
PROFESSION: NHS manager
FROM: Essex
WHAT MADE YOU APPLY TO BE A BIG BROTHER HOUSEMATE? ‘I love the programme. It is, for me, the ultimate reality TV show ever. I’ve got multiple sclerosis and so the reason why I never applied before is because I always saw those whacking great big stairs to get into the house. It just felt a little bit unachievable because for the first three years of my illness I was in a wheelchair. When I saw it was coming back and searching for real people from all walks of life, I thought, this is my year.’
