Olympic champion turned reality show star Bruce Jenner confirmed on
Friday (24 April) plans to transition to female.
'For all intents and purposes, I am a woman,' Jenner told Diane
Sawyer minutes into a highly-anticipated interview on ABC.
'People look at a me differently. They see you as this macho male,
but my heart and soul, and what I do in life… it is a part of me – that female
side is part of me. I was not genetically born that way. As of now I have all
the male parts, and all that kind of stuff, and in a lot ways we’re different,
but we still identify as female… And that’s very hard for Bruce Jenner to say,
because I don’t want to disappoint people.'
Sawyer told viewers that Jenner asked that male pronouns still be
used - for now - when discussing him in the interview.
'You know what? It's going to be tough,' Jenner said of telling the
world. 'I've been thinking about this day forever and what I should do with my
life. How do I tell my story? How do I tell people what I've been through?'
Jenner, 65, said has had to deal with having 'the soul of a female'
even as a young child dressing in dresses belonging to his mother and sisters.
'I was a lonely boy. I’m still a lonely big boy,' Jenner said. 'I
don’t socialize a lot. I’m not an outgoing person. I never fit in.'
Jenner's children, mother and sister expressed their support on the
special as did two of Jenner's three ex-wives. Kris Jenner was not heard from
but later tweeted her support.
Jenner will continue to be called 'dad' by the family and did not
reveal a female name.
'I'm not saying goodbye to me,' Jenner said. 'Because I've always
been me.'
Jenner revealed that before meeting Kris Jenner, the Olympian had
been taking female hormones for five years in the 1980s and was planning to
transition back then before deciding not to after all.
Other select quotes from interview:
On sexuality: 'It’s apples or oranges. Sexuality is who
you’re attracted to, who turns you on — gender identity is who you are, what is
in your soul. I’m not gay.'
On briefly considering suicide: 'Then I thought no, I can't
do that. I wanna see how this story ends.'
On ex-wife Kris Jenner: 'If she was really good with it
and understanding we'd probably still be together. ... 'It's not what she
expected. It was tough on her. ... I loved kris. Had a wonderful life with her.
I learned a lot from her. I thought we had a pretty good sex life.'
On Keeping Up With the Kardashians reality show: 'We’ve
done 425 episodes, I think, over almost 8 years. Over the entire run, I kept
thinking to myself, ‘Oh my god. This whole thing, the one real true story in
the family was the one I was hiding and nobody knew about it. The one thing
that could really make a difference in people’s lives was right here in my
soul, and I couldn’t tell it.'
On charges of seeking publicity: 'Would I go through
a gender change and do all you need to do for that, for the show? Have you any
idea what I've been going through all my life, and I'm doing it for publicity
for a show? Oh my God.'
On being transgender: 'I'm not a girl in guy's body,
I hate that, I am a person, it's who I am. My brain is much more female than it
is male. It's hard for people to understand but that's what my soul is.'
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