Stereophonics’ Kelly Jones praises teen son’s courage for coming out as trans

Stereophonics hitmaker Kelly Jones is proud of his son Colby after the teenager, 15, decided to come out as transgender.

Kelly has discussed Colby's "incredible courage" during an interview on The High Performance Podcast with Jake Humphrey & Prof Damian Hughes.

During the chat, Kelly shared that as recently as 2019 people would tell him "it's just a phase, he'll grow out of it", but he told that he knew his son "couldn't look more different from the rest of the girls" in his class.

Proving that Kelly is one proud father, he hailed Colby as "incredible" and added that he has "learned a lot" from the teenager, who he shares with ex Rebecca Walters.

Kelly, 46, explained to the hosts: "I went to watch a carol service at the school last summer, and people are going, 'It’s just a phase, he’ll grow out of it.'

"And he walked down with a short-cropped haircut, like David Bowie, wearing trousers and a shirt.

"And he's like, 'I look like a bartender' and he couldn't look more different from the rest of the girls there. And I'm thinking, 'Well, that takes a lot of balls that'.

"And there's no way you would be doing that if it wasn't something for real, you know? So there's a lot of courage involved in that whole thing. Yeah. It's incredible."

Kelly - who is also parent to 12-year-old Misty with Rebecca and three-year-old Riley with wife Jakki Healy - continued: "I've learned a lot from him [Colby]. I've learned a lot from all my kids. I've just been walking around a park with my 13 year old because she's going through stuff as well."

In April, Kelly shared his initial response to Colby sharing that he was transgender on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place Podcast.

Kelly said: “I remember getting upset one night. I felt I sounded like an animal because I couldn’t work out what was going on...

“You actually go through a grieving process because you feel like you’ve lost your daughter and you’ve gained a son, and then you get responsible for the siblings and how they’re going to deal with it, and the grandparents...”

He said: “It’s the resistance to everything and your own prejudices and whatever films you’ve seen, or your upbringing or derogatory terminology you’ve used as a kid – all that comes straight into your head the minute you hear the word transgender.”

Kelly added at the time: “We are all fully supporting it. She had a lot of anxiety through all this stuff and it felt like every little bomb she gave me and her mum and the family she’d get lighter and feel better about herself.”

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Kelly JonesStereophonicsTeenagersTransgender