Reality star Tabatha Coffey says her
mother did not handle her coming out well.
The 48-year-old Australian-born Coffey
was the star of Bravo's Tabatha Takes Over for five seasons.
On the show, Coffey, a hairstylist who gained fame competing on Shear
Genius, came to the rescue of salons in distress.
Coffey returned to television this year
with a new small business makeover show on Bravo titled Relative
Success with Tabatha.
Coffey, who is openly gay, told Larry
King that her parents owned transgender strip clubs in Australia and
that they would loan money to their employees who sought gender
reassignment surgery.
Despite her embrace of the transgender
community, Coffey's mother did not approve of her daughter being a
lesbian.
“My mother was not very happy when I
came out, which I thought would be the opposite,” Coffey said.
“How old were you?” King asked.
“15.”
“She didn't handle it well?”
“She did not handle it well. No, she
did not handle it well. And it took a long time for her to handle it
well. So, that made me not handle it well, and it made it a very
confusing time, as well. It took a while for her to warm up to it
and it was an extraordinary thing, but luckily, in the end, she did,”
Coffey
answered.
Coffey added that her father “went to
work one day and never came back.” She was 11 at the time.