Sinn Fein Mary Lou McDonald said she fully supports her oldest sibling who transitioned from male to female last year.
When asked about transgender issues, she revealed Bernard was born male but has since switched gender.
Ms McDonald added: “Everybody gets one life, it’s not a dress rehearsal, so it’s important people are true to themselves.
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“And, of course, when it’s a family member, it’s all the more important because it’s so close to your life.”
She said Ireland was on a “learning curve” on gender identity and would not be in a position to follow Scotland’s overhaul of transgender laws.
She told the Sunday Times Magazine: “We haven’t taken that step. I, like a lot of people… are on a learning curve.”
The 53-year-old party leader revealed she liked the future King Charles after meeting him in 2018.
Ms McDonald added after they both contracted Covid in 2020, the then-prince wrote to her and she responded and they are now “very cordial” pen pals. She added: “I like him very much, and I found him interesting and interested.”
She also wrote to express her sympathies following the deaths of both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Ms McDonald also apologised for the IRA assassination of Lord Mountbatten the day after Prince Philip’s funeral. Now the leader of Ireland’s most popular political party and tipped to become Ireland’s first female Taoiseach she said she has no contact with her father.
She said: “I wouldn’t have a tight relationship with my father”, When asked if she had contact with him she said “no”.
On Irish reunification she said believes it could be partly funded by Britain.
She added: “We need to talk to the British Exchequer. I would look for a commitment from them. Not in perpetuity.
“We don’t need to be. Look at the southern economy — it’s modern, it’s dynamic. It can reimagine itself and reshape itself. That can happen in the North as well.”
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