The son of renowned photographer David Bailey, has shared his concerns for other young people after coming close to transitioning into a woman.
Sascha Bailey says he began to feel so low that internet chatrooms convinced him there was a way to cure his despair - becoming a transgender woman.
He planned to transform into a "real-life Barbie", with curves and long blonde hair.
Sascha said thoughts of becoming a woman started as he dealt with a volatile and difficult marriage, which caused him to become so depressed that he was barely able to get out of bed.
The son of renowned photographer David Bailey, has shared his concerns for other young people after coming close to transitioning into a woman
Getty
"Transitioning was a way of killing myself without dying, because I was so unhappy with my life," he told the Daily Mail.
"I thought that if I could do this one thing it could change everything, I could reinvent myself as an entirely new person."
After deciding that transitioning was the right thing to do, he went to see a private doctor who confirmed he was transgender and wrote him a prescription for female hormones.
But with the help of his family and new partner, photographer Lucy Brown, Sascha was guided away from what he believes was a potentially disastrous decision.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
He added: "'I feel there's a huge problem with over-diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
"Obviously it is very real for some, but I think there are a lot of people who, like me, aren't actually trans, they're just incredibly unhappy and transitioning is a way of making themselves into a new person which they believe will fix everything.
"This new person won't have the old problems or the old societal expectations. But of course that's not really true."
The star explained that by speaking out, he understands that he may be a target for trolls.
"But no one can say it's not my lived experience," he said, "I am only speaking from the heart about something I know."
After deciding that transitioning was the right thing to do, he went to see a private doctor who confirmed he was transgender and wrote him a prescription for female hormones
Getty
After marrying lawyer Mimi Nishikawa, who was 20 years his senior, their relationship became increasingly toxic and by September 2022 he considered taking his own life.
It was at this point that the idea of changing gender began to materialise. "I'd already been thinking about it and it's an idea that just grew and grew," he says. "It became this way of not having to kill myself, but to become someone new."
On reflection, Sascha said: "One, there was no actual way I can know what it feels like to be a woman because I'd never been one, so the idea of me saying 'Oh, I feel like a woman' was absurd."
He added: "Thank God I didn't do the hormones because within a few months, you're risking infertility and the thought that I could not have children is devastating.
"But it also shines a light on the uncomfortable reality, which is that we are asking kids aged 15 and 16 to make the choice about whether or not they will want children themselves and that just isn't right."