BY: DM
Published 1 month ago
The 2025 season of “Big Brother” was filled with drama, tears, and a whole lot of fake evictions. It also gave a U.K. transgender man, Zelah Glasson, a chance to share his story. “Big Brother” is a social experiment reality show where strangers live together in a camera-rigged house, cut off from the outside world. They take part in challenges, nominate each other for eviction, and rely on the public’s vote to stay in the house.
The show, which first premiered in 2000, already has a history of trans representation. Nadia Almada won in 2004, Luke Anderson took the crown in 2012, and Hallie Clarke helped reboot the show’s inclusive energy in 2023. Glasson stepped into that legacy as the first trans man of the ITV era. And while he didn’t want the house to reduce him to his transition, Glasson understood the topic would surface — especially, as he joked, because “I went to an all-girls school.”
However, Glasson didn’t shy away from sharing his experience. He opened up about transitioning, explained how the journey changed his life, and described the power of living in his truth.
Zelah Glasson Has Been Honest About Transitioning
Glasson was very candid during his stint on “Big Brother,” and he didn’t hold back. He told fellow contestant, Sam, that he’d had chest surgery two years ago. He joked that he’d “went from lesbian to man.” Glasson also explained that transitioning allowed him to actually imagine a future. “I guess I’m at a point in my life for the first time ever, I can see myself with a gray beard, growing old with my partner, possibly being a dad. And that’s only come to place in the past year,” he said.
It wasn’t always that peaceful. On the show he recalled being dragged out of a women’s bathroom by bouncers before he transitioned and having to lift his shirt to prove he was wearing a sports bra. “It’s scary, it feels like all that progress is just back-rolling,” he told Sam. And then came the messier TV moment. A housemate accidentally outed him in front of everyone, and another player later misgendered him.
Glasson Plans to Have Children One Day
Glasson entered the ‘Big Brother’ house already known to some fans. He left a corporate job to become a personal trainer, built a TikTok following of more than 100,000, and focused his coaching on LGBTQIA+ people and women — the same groups he said he’d invest in if he won prize money.
He told housemates he lived as a woman for 23 years before transitioning. On the show, he has opened up about what that journey means to him, including honest conversations about family plans and having children with his girlfriend, Francesca.
“Something that I might look into is getting my eggs taken out so Francesca can carry my egg. That way, our baby will have 50 percent of my DNA, but she gets to carry it. That’s what she wants — she really wants to do it that way,” he said.
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