The Strange Life of P Orridge: How a Man Spent the Rest of His Life Turning Himself into a Copy of His Own Wife

English musician Neil Andrew Magson, who performed under the pseudonym Genesis P Orridge, was known as an extravagant person even in the London underground world – and they saw it all there!

When he met Jacqueline Breuer in 1994, who was working as “mistress” in a BDSM club, Genesis had an experience of both family life and fatherhood – in a completely traditional form. But the passion for Jacqueline (her name was Lady Jay) completely changed him.

The lovers realized that their feelings were so great that the only way to express them would be to unite into one organism. This process has been called “The Creation of Pandrogyne” by them and spanned 15 years. Throughout, Genesis and Lady Jaye have been touring, presenting a special artistic program that showcases the fusion of masculine and feminine. Their goal was ambitious and insane: they planned to become perfect beings with signs of both sexes, to dissolve in each other, to surrender to love.

“We realized that marriage means in any case a new level of intimacy: if you decide to live together and become one team, you have to change a lot – maybe psychologically, and maybe also physically”, said Lady Jay.

In 2003, the couple adopted the common surname Breyer P Orridge and began a surgical transformation. They implanted identical breast implants, synchronized hairstyles and makeup, manipulated facial features.

Lady Jaye died of cancer in 2007. Her husband was, on the one hand, inconsolable, on the other hand, he clearly felt that part of his wife’s personality had passed into him, so he was not not left alone. He made a firm decision to continue to change in order to transform himself “a perfect mirror of her beauty” and began to refer to himself as “we” and act as if he were two people in one body.

This, of course, was a serious test for her daughters and other relatives and friends. Until his own death in March 2020, Genesis P Orridge did not part with Pandrogyne’s dream. He assured that he and Lady Jay had worked out a plan in the event of separation by death, and that they knew exactly what to do to see each other again.

They hoped that it would be easier for others to understand their union if they looked alike – but everything turned out to be completely different.

Photo: Legion Media