Three years after she shot to fame as Miss Universe Australia, Jesinta Campbell has found a boyfriend worth taking home to meet the parents.

For the past few months, Jesinta has been dating Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin and recently took the AFL superstar to meet her mum and dad.

The meeting went extremely well, as Jesinta tells the January issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly and the blonde beauty is now excitedly looking forward to their future together.

These pictures trace Jesinta’s transformation from beauty queen to new chief WAG.

Jesinta in the January issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. Photography by Justin Ridler. Styling by Mattie Cronan.

Modelling swimwear while competing to become Miss Universe Australia in June 2010.

Newly-crowned Miss Universe Australia in June 2010.

Jesinta seemed shocked to win the national title.

Jesinta in LA on her way to the Miss Universe pageant in August 2010.

Looking spectacular in swimwear in the Miss Universe pageant in August 2010.

Jesinta was crowned Miss Congeniality at the Miss Universe pageant.

Jesinta in an unusual outfit in September 2010.

Looking sexy in leather in April 2011.

At Derby Day in Melbourne in October 2011.

At the races in Sydney in March 2012.

At the 2012 Melbourne Cup.

Looking sultry in Sydney in April 2013.

With new boyfriend Buddy at Derby Day in November.

Jesinta confirmed their romance by posting this image on her Instagram account.

Jesinta in the January issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. Photography by Justin Ridler. Styling by Mattie Cronan.

Jesinta in the January issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. Photography by Justin Ridler. Styling by Mattie Cronan.

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There is an old saying, sometimes attributed to Dr Seuss, about how you should give up pretending and just be who you are because: Those who mind don’t matter

And those who matter won’t mind.

Easier said than done, of course, especially when you’re keeping a secret as significant as the one that Lieutenant Colonel Cate McGregor AM – formerly Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm McGregor AM – kept for nigh on 50 years.

Cate was born a boy but she always felt like a girl. She tried to hide it, mainly by flexing what she saw as the masculine side of her personality as a soldier in our armed forces but, she says, “it got to the point, in my mid-50s, where I could not stand it anymore”.

In an interview in this month’s The Australian Women’s Weekly, Cate explains how she had to tell the truth about herself, which in turn meant giving up her name, her marriage, and ultimately her military career, to live as a woman.

It meant having the toughest conversations of her life, with her then-wife (she’s now a great friend); her sisters and other family members; with her boss, the hyper-masculine, khaki-clad Chief of Army, David Morrison AO; and with one of her closest friends, the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.

“I knew I’d have to tell him,” she says, “because our friendship is one of the oldest, most continuous friendships of my life.’”

And what did Abbott say?

“I got the most loving response,” says Cate, delighted. “He said, ‘look, it changes nothing’. Then he said, ‘what’s your preferred name now?’ And ever since, he’s called me Cate.”

Cate tells The Weekly that she had misgivings about her gender from the earliest age, but could not find a way to express the idea.

“I was fascinated with women’s clothes, but I’d tried on Mum’s dresses and I’d gotten into awful trouble, so I never did it again,” she says.

Her sister, Mary Saunders, who is 16 years older, says her memory of Cate as a little boy are that “she was very shy and quite timid. But I never suspected her troubles with gender”.

Cate’s father died when she was eight. He had fought at Kokoda, and her grandfather fought at Fromelles. As a way of connecting with them, she joined the Army.

“I had an idea about the military being the ultimate expression of masculinity,” she says, “But I wasn’t thinking, this will make me a man. It wasn’t as conscious as that.”

She was diagnosed as ‘transgender’ (somebody who feels they’ve been assigned the wrong gender at birth) in 1985 but decided to ‘white-knuckle’ through the diagnosis.

In 1995, she met the woman who became her wife and says “from that day on, I was deeply in love. I had met my soul mate, the person I was meant to be with, and I adored her to bits.

“But by 2011, I was in very bad shape,” Cate says. “I was boiling over with the idea that I was living the wrong gender. I can’t convey – I don’t have the language – to explain what it was like to live in that turmoil, but it was a nightmare.”

She went back to the psychiatrist who said: “It’s a no-brainer. You are transgender.”

“I was waiting for somebody to say, here, take this pill, and it will all be fine,” says Cate, “and he said, it won’t be fine. Can’t you see that? I said, but I’m an infantry officer, I’m married, it’s too late, I’m 50-something years old, it’s not an option. He said, I’m puzzled you’ve got this far.

“But I was still so scared. I thought, my fate is to be a tragic figure, socially ostracised. And that was frightening, but the greatest loss would be my marriage. I knew I would lose my wife, and I was completely in love with her, and it broke my heart.”

Read more of this story in the January issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

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The Aussie beauty queen opens up about their budding romance in the January issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly, revealing their relationship is so serious Buddy recently met her parents.

“It’s the first time I have felt strongly enough about someone that I wanted my parents to meet him,” the 22-year-old blonde tells The Weekly.

“I was never going to bring home someone I was just dating or someone I was having a fling with.”

The meeting was a huge success, much to the relief of Jesinta who had been worried Buddy’s bad boy reputation would cloud her parents’ view of him.

“It went really well,” she says. “It was nice for Lance to finally meet the people in the world who are most important to me, and for them to meet the person who is most important in my life right now.

“We decided to do brunch and, at 5pm, I was ushering Mum and Dad out the door. I think it’s safe to say he was a hit.”

The couple aren’t yet living together but are spending “pretty much every night” at Buddy’s Bondi bachelor pad.

Jesinta says they’re “very happy”, hinting she hopes marriage and children are in their future.

“In five years’ time, I definitely see myself starting a family,” she says.

Asked if there might be someone in her life right now Jesinta would consider doing that with she replied: “Maybe! I’m not going to let you put words in my mouth, but that’s definitely a position I’d like to be in!”

Read more of this story in the January issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

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She shot to fame as a geeky child beauty queen in 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine but Abigail Breslin proved she’s all grown up last night.

The 17-year-old actress donned a daring dress to walk the red carpet at the premiere of August: Osage County.

The vintage Norma Kamali gown featured head-to-toe sheer panels and ensured Abigail was the centre of attention at the event.

Abigail isn’t the first child star to dramatically change her appearance. Here are some of our favourite then-and-now shots.

Abigail Breslin as Olive Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine and last night in LA.

Dakota and Elle Fanning in 2001, and in January 2013.

Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl in Kick-Ass and in New York in December 2011.

A pigtailed Drew Barrymore in 1982 and 2011.

Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz in 2000 and 2012.

Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin in 1991 and in February 2011.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in 1980, and at a fashion show in 2011.

Lindsay Lohan in 1998 and 2013.

Matilda star Mara Wilson in 1996 and 2010.

Christina Applegate in 1987 and 2011.

Kirsten Dunst in 1995 and October 2011.

Harry Potter star Emma Watson in 2000, and in September 2011.

Emma’s co-star Daniel Radcliffe in 2000 and 2011.

Fellow Harry Potter alumni Rupert Grint in 2000 and September 2011.

Amanda Bynes in 1998 and in a 2012 mug shot.

Natalie Portman in 1994 and at the 2011 Oscars.

Scarlett Johansson in 1998 and in August 2011.

Bindi Irwin with her dad in 2002, and on the red carpet with brother Robert in October 2011.

Britney Spears in 1998 and 2013.

Anna Paquin in 1994 and 2011.

Edward Furlong in 1992 and 2013.

Doogie Howser MD star Neil Patrick Harris in 1988 and in 2011.

Christina Ricci in 1990, and in August 2011.

Jodie Foster in 1980 and at an awards show in September 2011.

Legendary child star Shirley Temple in 1935 and 2006.

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