The daughter of TV celebrities Sonny and Cher is going to become a man.
Chaz Bono, the son of Cher and the late Sonny Bono, is finally breaking his public silence about his decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery and become a man.
In a two-part interview with "Entertainment Tonight" airing tonight and Friday night, Bono, formerly known as Chastity, opens about about taking hormones, growing up as a girl wanting to be a boy, and coming to terms with his true self.
"It wasn't a sudden decision," Bono says in the interview. "I've been doing therapy for a long time. It's a long process going back almost a decade. I got clean and sober in 2004 and I couldn't have done this before that."
He adds, "I always felt like the male from the time I was a child. There wasn't much feminine about me. I believe that gender is something between your ears not between your legs. That is something I discovered in the early 90's. It was just a long process of being comfortable enough to do something about it. I was turning 40 and I thought it's now or never. I want to still feel vibrant and be able to enjoy my life in a male body and not wait until I am an old man."
Bono tells "Entertainment Tonight" that he started taking male hormones in March. Their effect has altered his appearance dramatically.
Chastity Bono at the 2005 Outfest awards."It lowered my voice," he says. "Fat redistributes, muscle growth, hair growth, sex drive increases. It doesn't change anything mentally and emotionally. [I'm] still not anywhere near what I will look like but really for the first time I am feeling much more comfortable with how I look physically. ... I shave about once a week now. It kind of started to come in just like peach fuzz. I always wanted to shave. It is a very natural process. For my birthday I got a lot of shaving stuff."
On having his breasts removed, Bono says, "Most people call it top surgery. The construction of the male chest from a female chest. When I went through puberty and started to grow breasts, it was very uncomfortable and emotional."
Bono says he's a work in progress. To greater and lesser degrees, he'll always be in transition.
Chastity Bono on "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour," 1973."I will be changing for about four to five years in total but I'll be on testosterone for the rest of my life," he explains. "The nice thing about this process is it is slow. I am literally going through puberty. ... The most important thing about this for me is that my outsides are finally starting to match my insides. I feel like I'm living in my body for the first time and it feels really good."
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
