Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 August 2025 source ↗
In my early days of transitioning, I used to come to London and meet for a drink with a group going through the same thing. I used to wear a full wig, and one night I’d drunk too much and fell asleep on the train, and my wig slipped off.
On radio, I once said “anal” instead of “angel”.
Pretending I’m happy when I’m not.
I have a deep-rooted fear of being in trouble. I once tried to sneak into the back of a photography exhibition with my husband when one of our kids was in a pushchair. We’d arrived late and he suggested we go in through the gift shop and see the last room. As we poked our heads round the door, the security guard noticed us. I shouted, “That man’s trying to get in!”, then ran away.
When I changed the toner cartridge in my printer all on my own – that was a day of pure euphoria.
Nothing. I survived a cancer scare at 60, so I am just overjoyed to be here.
A sense of what’s right, a few quid and some nice paintings.
Throat and neck cancer in 2018. They told me six to eight months if it hadn’t been caught.
This was said about me in a Radio 1 focus group: “I don’t pay my licence fee to hear scummy northerners.”
Working in a bottle factory, which lasted one day, and the Radio 1 breakfast show.
Rose Ayling-Ellis, Sofia Coppola, Paapa Essiedu, Brandi Carlile, Olly Alexander, Kathy Lette
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