Through puberty, Cossey was distinctly feminine in appearance due to an intersex variation of XXXY syndrome (which she was unaware of until adulthood).
[1][4] In Cossey's autobiography My Story, she describes an unhappy childhood, where she suffered confusing feelings and bullying by peers due to her femininity.
[1] Cossey left formal schooling when she was fifteen and found work in a clothing store and as a butcher's apprentice.
[6] Shortly after the film's release, the tabloid News of the World came out with a front-page headline "James Bond Girl Was a Boy".
On 27 September 1990, the European Court of Human Rights overturned its prior decision,[further explanation needed] following a British government appeal.
[1] Subsequently, the right of transgender people in the United Kingdom to change their legal sex would not be granted until the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Cossey became engaged to Count Glauco Lasinio, an Italian advertising executive, who was the first man to date her knowing of her past.
The engagement ended, but her legal efforts continued for seven years, eventually reaching the European Court of Human Rights.
[1][9] After breaking up with Lasinio, Cossey met Elias Fattal, a businessman, who was unaware of her history until he proposed marriage on St. Valentine's Day 1988.
They returned from their honeymoon to find that the News of the World had published a story on their wedding, which led Fattal to seek an annulment.