Bruce Jenner Comes Out as Transgender: ‘For All Intents and Purposes, I Am a Woman’
Bruce Jenner Comes Out as Transgender: ‘For All Intents and Purposes, I Am a Woman’
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Bruce Jenner attends the 13th annual Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational gala at the ARIA Resort & Casino at CityCenter on April 4, 2014 in Las Vegas, NV.Ethan Miller—Getty Images
Olympic gold medalist and TV personality Bruce Jenner confirmed in a new interview late Friday that he is undergoing a long-rumored gender transition, saying it would be his last time known as “Bruce.”
“For all intents and purposes, I am a woman,” Jenner said in the interview that aired Friday night on ABC. “My heart and my soul and all I do in life, that is part of me.”
“Sexuality is who you personally are attracted to—who turns you on— male or female,” Jenner said. “But gender identity has to do with who you are as a person and your soul, and who you identify with inside.”
Describing to ABC’s Diane Sawyer the process of God assigning traits, Jenner described his best-known attributes and then said: “Let’s give him the soul of a female and let’s see how he deals with that.”
At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Bruce Jenner won the gold medal in the decathlon, setting the world record at 8,616 points.Getty ImagesJenner became a national hero following his Olympic win and was later inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986.Tony Duffy—Getty ImagesJenner became an NBC Sportscaster in the late 1970s following his Olympic performance in Montreal.NBC/Getty ImagesJenner married actress Linda Thompson, above, on Jan. 5, 1981, following his divorce with Chrystie Crownover.Getty ImagesJenner was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. In October of 1985, he received the Outstanding Learning Disabled Achiever Award from then-First Lady Nancy Reagan alongside stars such as Cher and Tom Cruise.Getty ImagesJenner was a successful race car driver in the 1980s, though in a 2013 interview he said, "I was a lot more badass runner than I was a driver.”Ann Clifford—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesIn 1991, Jenner married Kris Jenner, previously Kris Kardashian, just one month after she finalized her divorce from Robert Kardashian. The two had dated for only five months.Maureen Donaldson—Getty ImagesTheir marriage merged two already large families, evident here in this 1991 portrait.Donaldson Collection/Getty ImagesAfter his sports career, Jenner, seen here at a celebrity golf event in 1993, had a number of small acting jobs and television appearances.Stephen Dunn—Getty ImagesThe family poses at an event in 1995, the year Jenner and Kris welcomed the first of their two children together, Kendall Jenner.Ron Galella—WireImageKylie Jenner was born two years later in 1997. The girls can be seen here on the red carpet in 2000, long before they covered magazines and appeared on TIME's Most Influential Teens list.Scott Nelson—AFP/Getty ImagesJenner, seen here in 2005, would re-enter the spotlight thanks to Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which first premiered in 2007.Steve Granitz—WireImageJenner spoofed his reality-star fame with a commercial for Tropicana Juicy Rewards in 2010.APJenner and Kris, here at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2011, announced their separation in 2013. She filed for divorce the following year.Kevin Winter—Getty ImagesJenner poses with a box of Wheaties in 2012. He appeared on the front of the box first in 1977 after his Olympic gold-medal win, then in 2012 when Wheaties rolled out a retro series.Noel Vasquez—Getty ImagesJenner appears with two of his sons, TV personality Brody Jenner and musician Brandon Jenner, who records with his wife as Brandon & Leah, at an April 2013 release party.Chelsea Lauren—WireImageJenner walks with step-daughter Kim Kardashian in October of 2014 — about five months after rapper Kanye West became his son-in-law.Bauer-Griffin—GC ImagesCaitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, appeared as a woman for the first time on the cover of Vanity Fair's June 2015 issue, photographed by Annie Leibovitz.Annie Leibovitz—Vanity FairCaitlyn Jenner accepts the Arthur Ashe Courage Award onstage during The 2015 ESPYS at Microsoft Theater on July 15, 2015 in Los Angeles.Kevin Winter—Getty Images
Sawyer, in the long-anticipated interview, said that Jenner began hormone treatment in the 1980s, but stopped due to his own religious beliefs and his fear of embarrassing his children.
Jenner didn’t disavow his past role as an Olympian and, for a time, the paragon of machismo as far as the public was concerned. When Sawyer gave Jenner his (and Jenner noted he prefers masculine pronouns for the time being) Wheaties box, Jenner said: “I am proud of that moment.” But as far as the wildly popular persona was concerned, Jenner said: “Being Bruce isn’t easy.”
Asked whether his story is a publicity stunt, Jenner replied: “What I’m doing is going to do some good and we’re going to change the world.”
“I had this feeling—kind of a revelation—that maybe this is my cause in life,” Jenner said. “This is why God put me on this earth, is to deal with this issue. And that was a very powerful moment. It certainly gave me an awful lot of courage.”
“If this is the only problem I have in life,” Jenner said, “I’ve got it made.”
