Eddie Izzard: I'd like to start dating but being a trans woman makes it complicated

Eddie Izzard has said she is struggling to start dating again as a transgender woman.

The 60-year-old comedian and actor has been openly transgender since 1985 but in December 2020 announced she wanted to be "based in girl mode from now on".

Izzard has now told The Daily Mail: "I would like to start dating, but it's complicated with me being a trans woman.

Read more: Jeremy Clarkson corrected after getting Eddie Izzard's pronouns wrong

'"It's going to have to be a very confident and strong-minded woman who has a relationship with me."

The political activist and Labour party member has in the past identified as a transvestite and described herself as “a lesbian trapped in a man’s body”.

She was in a long-term relationship with the British singer, director and producer Sarah Townsend after meeting at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1989 and they are still friends.

Izzard said in 2018: “I would love to have kids one day, but I am trying to work out how to do that.”

Jeremy Clarkson was recently criticised for using the wrong pronouns when talking about Izzard.

The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host was speaking at ITV's schedule launch about some of the celebrity guests set to appear on the next series of the general knowledge quiz show.

Clarkson said: "Eddie Izzard obviously is very bright so he was fun. She, them, it. I don't know what you say! She? She?"

The audience then shouted out "they" at the former Top Gear presenter even though Izzard has never gone by they/them pronouns.

Clarkson then said: "They... whatever he is. I knew there was a word. There was a pronoun I had forgotten. They were very good."

Read more: Eddie Izzard says she's 'always had breasts envy'

Izzard has previously said of being mis-gendered: “It is live and let live. If anyone refers to me as ‘she’ or ‘her’, I feel a wonderful feeling."

Watch: Eddie Izzard on sharing her gender pronouns