Top newsman becomes newswoman as he leaves wife of 17 years and renames himself 'Dawn'

• ABC News producer Don Ennis, 49, has become Dawn Ennis
• Called female identity 'soul-crushing secret' after embracing new life
• Ms Ennis separates from wife of 17 years with whom she has three children

New Dawn: ABC News producer Dawn Ennis, pictured now, right, and as Don, the man she was for 49 years, left, is now living as a woman after keeping her true identity 'a soul-crushing family secret' for seven years

A producer at a top news channel has announced that he is now a she. Dawn Stacey Ennis, formerly known as Don, surprised her colleagues at ABC News head quarters in Manhattan when she arrived in brown locks and a dress to declare her new identity.

The 49-year-old journalist is leaving her wife of 17 years and their three children to make the complete transition into living as a woman.

Ms Ennis, who has worked at ABC News for ten years, has gone from balding to bombshell, a transition which she says began seven years ago, but was kept a family secret until now.

Debuting her new name and identity on her Facebook page last week, Ms Ennis added that it was not 'dress-up or make-believe'.

‘Trust me, this is NOT the midlife crisis I was counting on — I’d much prefer to have bought a sports car,’ Dawn wrote on the social network on Friday

‘Even an affair, I think, would have been something we might have recovered from.’

‘It is my affirmation of who I now am and what I must do to be happy, in response to a soul-crushing secret that my wife and I have been dealing with for more than seven years, mostly in secret.'

Ms Ennis suffers from a ‘hormone imbalance’ as a result of her mother feeding her estrogen as a child in order to halt puberty, believing it would ruing Ms Ennis’ career as a child actor, The New York Post reports.

This resulted in Ms Ennis eventually developing breasts and a lifelong medical condition which she says doctors have been unable to explain of cure.

Using social media, Ms Ennis has spoken of how her transition has ‘wrecked’ her marriage and on YouTube, where she has been active as Dawn for the past two years, she says she is ‘jealous’ of one transgender woman whose wife ‘stood by her’.

On Saturday, the day after she revealed her true identity to her colleagues, Ms Ennis moved out of the family home.

'Despite the heartbreak, [Wendy] has encouraged me to start this new life that we both believe better fits who I now am,' Ennis, a National Assignment Editor at ABC News, wrote on Facebook.

Prior to her full transition, Ms Ennis said she feared she might lose her job if she 'came out' as a woman.

She says one of the reasons for her delay in becoming a woman ‘full-time’ is her fear that as a freelance journalist, she would have no protection should her workplace have issues with her transition.

‘I have begun transition, just not at work, and the job/wife/family dynamic is what's stopping me from full-time, and probably rightly so,' she wrote in a YouTube comment from last year.

However, colleagues at ABC News have been fully supportive of Ms Ennis transition from Don to Dawn and celebrated with glitter and cake when she arrived for her first day as a woman on Friday.

She also received a note of support from ABC News President Ben Sherwood, and is working on a book deal.

'I’m overwhelmed by the strong support I’ve received from my coworkers, and I’m looking forward to telling my story when I’m ready,” Ennis said in a statement to the New York Post.

By SARA MALM