[Hooly One]

BIG Brother transsexual Nadia Almada has revealed the moment she knew she wanted to be a woman — when she put on nail varnish aged five.

In a frank interview — her first since winning the show — the 27-year-old told how she tried her mum’s make- up while growing up as a boy called Jorge.

She said: “I remember it still so clearly. I was about five.

“My mum had some nail varnish and one day I decided to paint my nails red.

“My father saw me and gave me a big slap and made me feel like it was a bad thing.

“But I knew then there was something inside me that was different and I was never going to be like my brothers.”

Portuguese Nadia — who had a sex change op last year — tells today’s Heat magazine that she felt for most of her life she was in the wrong body.

She even wore make-up and heels to school on the island of Madeira, despite being bullied by classmates. She said:

I wore nail varnish but it would be a clear one. I had clear mascara too.

I also loved long white menthol cigarettes because I thought they were the most glamorous and feminine. I would wear platform shoes and try to get away with what make-up I could.

I was a bit singled out and bullied. It didn’t make me stop.

It almost gave me the courage to say, ‘This is who I am, so tough luck.’

Nadia was branded gay, and for a while she wondered if people were right.

She said: “I thought that was the only explanation. I just didn’t see women as attractive.

“There was nothing there physically that was interesting to me. I can’t explain it.

“It was very, very natural for me to be attracted to men.”

But after moving to England in 1996 she landed a job with a stationery firm in trendy Brighton, Sussex, and started to dress as a woman. She recalled: “Everyone’s a little bit crazier there and I felt so comfortable.

“I chose the name Nadia. I just thought it was such a beautiful name.

“Someone told me it meant ‘hope’ or something like that.”

In 2000 Nadia saw a specialist to discuss a sex change op and began wolfing down hormone tablets to boost her boobs.

She said: “The tablets gave me a bust which was a natural B cup. But I started overdosing myself with tablets.

“It said, ‘Take one a day’ but I took two or three.

“The only down side was that I put on weight. And my hair condition got slightly weaker.”

Nadia — the eldest of six children — had to find a way to tell her hotel worker mum Conceicao, who broke up with her dad Luis 12 years ago.

She said: “I sent her pictures of me dressed as a woman so she got used to it. Apparently I look very much like my auntie, my dad’s sister.”

Last May, Nadia had a boob job to give her a DD cleavage and in December she had the final NHS op to remove her manhood.

She says waking afterwards was “beautiful” — but agony.

Nadia said: “I was in pain. I had a big nappy thing strapped around me really tightly.”

She hid her secret from Big Brother housemates but was relieved when the truth came out and they accepted her.

She said: “They’ve been amazing. They said it didn’t make a difference, which meant a lot.

“Even Victor complimented me and said he had shed a tear when I came out.”

That, plus the support of millions of viewers, has given Nadia a new confidence. She displayed it by doing a sexy photoshoot for the magazine with scantily-clad male models.

Nadia admits there have been difficult times.

She said: “I went through a dark stage. I didn’t like to look at myself. It was weird.”

But she added: “My confidence is stronger because I was embraced in such a beautiful way. I can look at pictures of myself from my past and I don’t have to cringe any more.

“I’m strong enough accept it.”

The Sun News