14 DAY TRIAL // In September this year, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was arrested for DUI, and shortly after, checked into an undisclosed rehabilitation facility to deal with his issues. While away, a woman named Taylor Lianne Chandler came forward to claim she was his girlfriend, and most surprisingly of all, to offer details of their hot dates pre-rehab.
Chandler is now making the most shocking revelation yet, by going on Facebook to admit that she was actually born David Roy Fitch.
She is not a man, though, and neither is she transgender or a transvestite. Chandler was born intersex, which Phelps had no idea about before going to rehab.
Breaking the news to Phelps on social media
Of all the ways to let your significant other find out about a secret from your past, this has got to be the worst! Chandler writes that Phelps didn’t know this detail about her because most of the people who came into her life after she had corrective surgery weren’t privy to it: she always told them she couldn’t have children.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines intersex as “the condition of having characteristics intermediate between those of a male and a female.” In Chander’s case, that meant she was born with male parts, an uterus but no ovaries, and a woman’s body.
She had the male parts removed when she was younger but because of her troubled past, which included a couple of arrests and a brief stint in jail for extortion (because she blackmailed one of her lovers into paying for her surgery), she never told her new friends about her condition.
Phelps didn’t know either, though they’d been intimate several times before he went to rehab, the alleged girlfriend claims. So when he didn’t answer her email, she decided to go public by breaking the news on Facebook.
Taking control over her own story
From Chandler’s Facebook feed, you can tell that she’s been throwing the Phelps name around a lot, whether by linking to stories about their supposed romance or to discuss it. However, she doesn’t have a single personal photo of or with him, and all the images she uses are stock photographs.
Phelps being in rehab, he’s probably barred from using a phone, so if he wasn’t able to see her email on the topic, chances are he can’t log in on Facebook to read her shocking statement.
With all this, she claims this is her way of taking control over her own story, after she was vilified by all kinds of false reports.
“I am telling my story to take the power away from the media and tabloids that want to hurt Michael and I. I will probably lose him, which hurts like hell. I might lose some of you as friends and I will have to accept that,” she writes.
She insists she wasn’t born a man and goes to great lengths to point the finger at media outlets that run this headline.
A very convenient story to tell
No one is bringing into question Chandler’s heartbreaking story of struggling with being different, fighting prejudice, and having to overcome physical abuse not once, but twice in her life. For that and for the beautiful way in which she worded her story, she’s receiving a lot of praise and support on social media.
On the other hand, for the way she’s throwing Phelps under the bus (at worst) or using his name for fame (at best), she’s getting a lot of flak. Chandler’s timing is very convenient because, as noted above, Phelps is not allowed any contact with the outside world in rehab.
She didn’t just come out with this story while he was away, she also made herself known as his “girlfriend” then. More tellingly, she went straight to the National Enquirer to talk in graphic detail about their first date, which was at a game, and which turned out so hot that they “made love at halftime.”
The fact that she’s so eager to talk about this yet can’t offer a single photo to prove their connection is seen by many as a clear sign that this is someone who’s trying to get famous by knocking down a truly famous person. Phelps will definitely be setting the record straight when he completes his program in rehab, count on that.
