Samantha Kane

Samantha Kane (formerly Charles Kane; born January 1960) is an Iraqi-born British barrister and businesswoman. Kane came under media scrutiny in 1990 when she led a takeover bid for Sheffield United F.C. as head of a Saudi Arabian investment firm. After coming out as a transgender woman in 1998, she was interviewed for the role of the club's next chief executive; she was ultimately forced to resign from her investment firm. From 2004 to 2017, she took a male gender identity, going by the given name Charles, but later came out again as a transgender woman. Since 2022, she owns the Carbisdale Castle in the Scottish Highlands and, as the Laird, has styled herself as Lady Carbisdale. (Kane uses this self-styled courtesy title as the lady of the manor of Carbisdale Castle She grew up in the conservative Hashimi family in Iraq.) According to the Times, the Hashimi family is part of the "deposed Iraqi branch" of the Hashemite royal family of Jordan. According to the Straits Times, she did not confirm reports that she was fronting the takeover bid for the mayor of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Abdul Momenhah, who owns a football club in Jeddah; she did confirm that she was connected to Momenhah.

Kane married her first wife in 1984, with whom she had two children.

In 1998, Kane was reported to have been interviewed to become Sheffield United's new chief executive. At one point after returning to public attention, Kane had a documentary film crew follow her. In 2004, she changed her given name to Charles and took a male gender identity. She later ascribed the decision to the bullying her son received at school because of her transgender identity. She would maintain that identity for the next fourteen years.

Also in 2004, Kane brought a case to the General Medical Council (GMC) against NHS Charing Cross Hospital consultant psychiatrist and gender reassignment expert Russell Reid, whom she first saw in 1997 after the breakdown of her marriage led to a "severe mental breakdown". Kane alleged that Reid had prematurely referred her for sex reassignment surgery in violation of international standards of medical care. Three other psychiatrists at Charing Cross submitted Kane's complaint and those of 11 other patients to the GMC. More than 150 of Reid's patients supported him, and Claire McNab, of the transgender advocacy group Press for Change, also noted that Reid had been defended by several other experts. GMC concluded an inquiry in 2007 through which it found that Reid was guilty of serious professional misconduct.

As of 2024, Kane leads a legal practice named Holland Park Chambers.

Carbisdale Castle

After decades as a hostel, Carbisdale Castle, in the Scottish Highlands, was put up for sale in April 2021, priced at £1.5 million. Intrigued by the history of Mary Caroline Blair, the duchess for whom the castle was built, Kane purchased the estate in October 2022. She subsequently began its restoration. Styling herself as Lady Carbisdale, Kane used the castle as her residence but planned to partially open it to the public. Kane listed the estate for sale in late 2024 after experiencing what she described as a campaign of transphobic abuse. A local councillor was briefly suspended in 2025 after agreeing that he had violated the council's code of conduct over a matter related to the estate.