My ex-boyfriend is now a woman': Couple ties the knot 20 years later She's the same person': After coming out as a transgender woman, Zo Chowney reconnected with her ex, Sandra Onate and they got married!
by Naledi de Wee
10-07-2022 17:27
in LGBTQIA+
Zo Chowney, after coming out as a transgender woman, reconnected with her ex-partner Sandra Onate and the two tied the knot! Image via Instagram @zoechowney
Mike Chowney met Sandra Onate in Bogota, Colombia in 1998 but their romantic relationship ended years later when they decided to go their separate ways. Mike, who now identifies as a transgender woman who goes by Zo , reunited with Sandra 20 years later and Sandra was shocked to learn that her ex-boyfriend was now a woman.
--
ALSO READ: Really disappointing': Transgender rugby player says ban is punishment
ZO CHOWNEY'S TRANSGENDER JOURNEY Speaking to The Daily Mail, Zo Chowney (formerly Mike Chowney) said she suffered from gender dysphoria and has a secret cache of women's clothes that she would wear in private when she still identified as a man.
After Chowney separated from Sandra Onate in 2000, the two married different people and led their own lives, but the 51-year-old's gender dysphoria still haunted her in 2014. A year later, Chowney was admitted to the hospital and was referred to the Cross Gender Identity Clinic in London.
--
I was naively hoping that with anti-depressants and specialist counselling, I could keep my life together, recalled Zoe.
Why would I want to transition? I'd be moving from the most privileged demographic an affluent middle-class, straight, white male to the most marginalised group in a society: a trans woman. Why would anyone choose to do that?
REUNITING WITH SANDRA ONATE After visiting the Gender Identity Clinic in 2015, Chowney's wife supported her transition but ultimately made the decision to get a divorce and together they broke the news to their two children. She finalised her transition in March 2017 and reunited with Sandra Onate through a professional network.
My ex-boyfriend is now a woman, said Sandra when she reconnected with Zoe.
As Zo , I hoped that we could rekindle our closeness as female friends. How lovely and what a privilege that would be! recalled Chowney.
Had I been male and divorced, I'd never have contacted her. But this was very different.
Chowney and Sandra became friends and in September 2018 they kissed again for the first time in more than a decade.
--
It's hard to explain but it was both reassuringly familiar and wonderfully new, she said.
ALSO READ: Officially married': First same-sex couples say I do' in Switzerland
TYING THE KNOT Chowney and Sandra tied the knot in August 2020 at a small register office ceremony but they will have all their family and friends gather for a ceremony in Valencia, Spain for a wedding.
In an interview with Prima Magazine, Sandra said her wedding day was the best day of her life .
Seeing her again felt so natural and magical once more. She's the same person I fell in love with 20 years ago, only even more beautiful, more open and wiser.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Zo Chowney (@zoechowney)
--
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Zo Chowney (@zoechowney)
--
SOCCER QUIZ | FIVE simple answers could earn you R1 000 in cash! ENTER NOW!
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
My ex-boyfriend is now a woman': Couple ties the knot 20 years later She's the same person': After coming out as a transgender woman, Zo Chowney reconnected with her ex, Sandra Onate and they got married!
