Chaz Bono Video Interview On ‘Transition,’ Cher, Becoming A Man

Transition author Chaz Bono, 43, born as Chastity to Cher and Sonny Bono, has lived much of his life in the public eye. Though he came out as a lesbian in 1995, it was around 2000 when he began to consider himself transgendered. He didn’t undergo the full transformation until 2009 out of concern over the reaction he might receive. “I just had a tremendous amount of fear of what other people would think of me if I transitioned, and knowing that I would have to do it in the public eye was something that really scared me and I thought that I would get a lot of criticism from people,” Bono told uInterview exclusively. “And I guess kind of slowly over time I worked through a lot of that stuff and mostly I just came to understand that I needed to take care of myself and my needs first and not be so concerned of what other people thought of me.”

Bono also reflected on the impact of seeing his body physically transform. “For me when my body started to change from the testosterone, it just felt really natural like it was reacting the way that I felt like it should react the first time I went through puberty, only I was going through it again at forty, so that was a little different. So everything was just exciting and felt really right,” he told us.

Bono has made the media rounds in recent years. His documentary, Becoming Chaz, was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, also airing on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network, and in 2011, Bono was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Today, after a long journey of personal discovery, Bono is more at peace with himself. “My life doesn’t really resemble anything that I experienced before and I am just so grateful really, every day to feel so comfortable and complete.”