[Hooly One]

THE long-lost father of Big Brother’s Nadia blinked back tears after learning of her sex-change yesterday and declared: “I will love him forever — as a son or a daughter.”

The Sun broke the shock news to shop worker Luis Leodoro, who has not seen his family since 1992, after tracking him down to a remote South African town.

He was totally unaware eldest son Jorge had gone through a sex change last December and was now known to millions of TV viewers as BB contestant Nadia Almada — widely tipped to win the show’s final tonight.

And after being shown a picture of Nadia, Luis said: “I think Nadia is extremely beautiful — perhaps the most beautiful woman our family ever produced.

“But my son, my daughter, it makes no difference to me. I’m just happy he is happy.”

Down-on-his-luck Luis, 51, who has been staying with a friend and stacking shelves to make ends meet, broke down when we showed him the photo of bank clerk Nadia.

Tracing the outline of her face with a finger, he shook his head and said in amazement: “I recognise Jorge’s smile, but now he is my daughter. I can’t believe it.”

Ex-electrician Luis moved wife Conceicao and their six sons from the Portuguese island of Madeira in 1989 to seek a better life in Pretoria, South Africa.

But he came home from work one Friday in August 1992 to find they had returned to Portugal — without leaving a note. He has not spoken to them since.

Luis recalled how “gentle” Jorge gave hints of his sexual identity while growing up.


He said he always hated rough games and avoided scraps with brothers Duarte, Agostinho, Luis, Miguel and Andre — now all builders, painters and decorators.

And he remembered him as “a quiet boy” who spent a lot of time “doing his hair”.

Luis said: “Jorge always was careful to keep himself very clean and tidy. He hated getting dirty and didn’t want to join in rough games with the others.

“He was very quiet and thoughtful and loved spending time with his mother. He was very gentle — more like a girl than a boy in that way.

“He always asked his mother’s opinion about how he should have his hair, or what to wear.

“He also got on very well with women — particularly his mother’s friends.”

Luis said Jorge had been a keen pupil at school in Madeira. But in Pretoria he found things tough on his first day in an Afrikaans-speaking class — and refused point blank to go again.

Instead he got a job in a supermarket at 13, spending much of his wages on gifts for his brothers and his mum.

But his world changed forever when Conceicao took him and his brothers back to Portugal.

Luis, who believes his wife’s “meddling” friends turned her against him, said: “Every day I cry about my sons and my wife.

“I lost my passport and didn’t have any money to buy a plane ticket to go and see them.

“But although they’re not here they are in my heart and I love them all as much as ever.

“I am still alive, that’s all I have going for me. But if I saw my wife and children again then I could die a happy man.”

Back in Madeira, with his mum out working to support the family, Jorge took on the role of mother to his five brothers.


A neighbour in the mountain village of Campanario said: “He’d make them meals and get them dressed in the morning.”

Soon afterwards, young Jorge grew interested in cross-dressing.

School pal Joao Martinho said: “He used to really enjoy wearing women’s clothes during carnival. But he was a nice boy and everyone liked him.”

Later Jorge began work in a bank and moved to the UK to prepare for his sex change and a new life as Nadia.

The family have had no contact with Luis — and 27-year-old Nadia, who uses her mum’s maiden name Almada, will be shocked to learn of his whereabouts in the dusty town of Disaneng in South Africa’s north west province.

Luis moved there four years after they left him and works in grocery and butcher’s shops.

Nadia, who lives in Surrey, was last night 1-50 favourite to win BB, ahead of Dan and Jason on 16-1 and Shell, 50-1.

Conceicao has flown in from Madeira to see her daughter lift the BB5 Crown after wowing viewers of the Channel 4 show.

And last night Luis sent her a good luck message via The Sun.



He said: “Good luck to Nadia — my son, and now my daughter.

“I wish you well in the Big Brother competition, I know you will win and hope we can be together again some day.

“Lots and lots of love to you, my wife and all my family.”

And Luis told how he longed for a hug from his new daughter.

He said: “If she wins perhaps Nadia will be rich. I am pleased because I know she will use the money well to look after her mother and brothers.

“I am not interested in being rich. I don’t expect Nadia to give me anything.

“If she gave me a hug and said hello, that would be everything I’d ever want.”

Luis added: “Me and my wife always wanted a daughter. We gave up trying for a girl after six children and now, after all this time, God has given me the daughter I always prayed for.

“If she wants boyfriends or a husband that is fine by me, as long as he makes her happy.

“I don’t understand why a man would want to be a woman, but I’m happy if Jorge’s happy.

“He was the first flower in my garden and I will love him forever — son or daughter.”

The Sun News