Lauren Harries

Harries appearing on After Dark on 23 March 1991, aged 12

Lauren Harries (born James Charles Harries 1978 in Surrey, England), is a British media personality. As James Harries, he was a child 'prodigy' in the field of antiques, appearing on numerous television shows including Wogan. In later life, as Lauren Harries, she has become more notable as an aspiring celebrity transsexual.

Biography

Her father is Mark Harries, who worked in the hotel business and catering trade, Harries was the youngest of three children. The family moved to Cardiff when Harries was still a baby. From the age of five, Harries enjoyed art and antiques, and had an alleged ability to spot bargains at local car boot sales and second-hand shops. Harries spotted a piece of porcelain which he bought for pennies and sold for several thousand pounds, a story picked up by the Western Mail.

Child career

Encouraged by the rest of the family to appear in the media, Harries's first television appearance was on Terry Wogan's UK chat show, Wogan. The twelve-year-old demonstrated what seemed to be a knowledge of antiques which, combined with an odd appearance including bow ties, hair in thick golden curls, formal attire and a precocious manner of speaking, made Harries memorable to British viewers.

Harries's father Mark ran a kissogram business; after Harries's appearance on Wogan Mark supported the perception that Harries was an antiques expert. Business opportunities arose out of the TV appearance, and the family opened an antiques shop, costume hire business and florists, the latter two on Broadway, Roath. Harries wrote a book entitled From Rags To Riches and tried to promote this when appearing on talk shows in the United States. However, the book failed to sell.

Harries's schooling suffered from the heightened publicity. By the age of 14, James, whose family had already been subject to abuse because of their unusual son, suffered depression and agoraphobia which led to a nervous breakdown and suicide attempt. Media opportunities and resulting business reduced as Harries grew up. The family worked to maintain the businesses they had started, but ran into problems during the recession of the early 1990s. One of the properties owned by the Harries family housed a costume hire business which Mark Harries set fire to in order to claim insurance money. In November 1992 Mark Harries was jailed for three years on charges of arson and filing a false insurance claim, and all the Harries family businesses failed. While the father was in prison the family lived on social security. James tried to get on a drama course but was rejected.

Sexual reassignment

As a child Harries had been taken to see a doctor about her female mannerisms; while the father, Mark, was in prison Harries decided to change from her birth name to Lauren, transition to female, and investigate sex reassignment surgery, which was carried out in 2001. Funding for this was generated from publicity arranged by Max Clifford.

On 8 July 2005, a gang of five to seven men attacked Lauren, her father and her brother in the family home. One 17 year old boy was later fined and given a supervision order for his role in the incident.

Later career

In 2004, after Harries had changed gender, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary Little Lady Fauntleroy made by actor Keith Allen in which he interviewed the Harries family. Throughout the film Allen comments on the dysfunctionality of the family and the fantasy world in which they live (including unmasking their professional qualifications as all either bought online or conferred by themselves) and ends up getting very angry with them after confronting them over this. The documentary was released on 4 July 2005 as a commercial DVD.

Although Lauren insists it was her own choice, the sex change is surrounded by confusion and many commentators suspect his parents of forcing him into it. In particular, James's psycho-sexual counselling, compulsary analysis before any sex-op can take place, was conducted by his own mother, who used a fake name on documents, and was quite possibly supported by her fake qualificiations.

Contrary to the received wisdom of the time, Harries may not have been a child prodigy at all. On Allen's documentary Lauren Harries revealed that she had been given stock, impressive sounding answers that could be used if asked a question she could not understand. She admitted her father had told her what to say before each television appearance. Harries also received an unorthodox, home-based education and passed only three GCSEs (a below average, even poor academic record).

In October 2006, Harries appeared in a Five television series Trust Me...I'm A Beauty Therapist, which was filmed on location in a beauty therapists in Swansea, Wales.

In August 2007, Harries launched her and her family's website, which gave visitors, for a subscription, the ability to view a fly-on-the-wall vlog of herself and her family. The site closed very soon afterwards.

In 2005, she appeared on Big Brother's Big Mouth to discuss the contestants on Big Brother, and in 2007 it was rumoured in the national press that she would participate as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother. However, she threatened to pull out unless she was able to bring incontinence supplies she has needed to use since her gender reassignment surgery, and eventually did not enter the house.

Between 2007 and 2008 Harries was a regular contributor to Bizarre Magazine, both as a columnist as well as, in one issue, a naked model.

In March 2008 it was reported that a 'production company insider' had told Teletext that Harries was getting her own television show where she would 'undertake various challenges'.

In November 2008 Harries was featured as a cover girl in the specialist lifestyle magazine Transliving.

On 21 September 2009 Harries appeared on the popular British daytime programme This Morning. During an interview along with (London-based) American psychologist Kenneth Demsky on the subject of young trans people, Harries took offence to the use of the term "trans-people" saying "people are prople, human beings" and then suggested he use the term "trans-women" instead. At the end of the interview, just before the programme went for a commercial break, Harries tried to plug her new television show called Lauren Harries: Working 9-5, but failed to offer any indication of when and where it will be aired. The series was broadcast over six weeks from March 1, 2010 on Showcase TV, (See Information TV). Harries also proceeded to stand up and impersonate Little Britain character Anne doing her trademark vocal noises. Harries was subsequently banned from appearing on the programme again.

External links

• Lauren Harries - interviewed by James Doorne for Bizarre magazine (October 2005)
• Lauren Harries on the Tongs Wiki