REPORT
For all intents and purposes, I’m
a woman: Bruce Jenner
S
tep-father of the Kardashian sisters, and US Olympic champion turned reality TV star Bruce Jenner
has come out as a transgender and disclosed that he
no longer wished to be referred to as “Bruce”.Jenner
made this revelation during an interview with ABC News
interviewer Diane Sawyer on her programme 20/20. In
a highly anticipated, two-hour TV interview, hailed by
transgender rights’ campaigners and his own Kardashian-linked family, the 65-year-old said he had wrestled
with his sexual identity since he was a kid.“Here I am,
stuck – and I hate the word – a girl stuck in a guy’s body.
As of now I have all the male parts and all that kind of
stuff,” he said.But asked point blank if he was a woman,
Jenner said, “Yes. For all intents and purposes, I’m a
woman."Jenner admitted to wearing his mother’s and
sister’s clothes when he was about 8 or 9 years old. At
the time, he clarified, he had no idea what he was doing and did it for no other reason except that he “felt
good” about it. As he grew up, cross-dressing became
an increasingly important part of his life, and he would
often strut around in women’s clothes during periods of
extensive travelling when no one else was around. He
also admitted to going out in public in women’s clothing
at a later stage when he felt more comfortable about
it.Jenner said that he has finally realized who he really
is. “I look at it this way: Bruce always telling a lie. He’s
lived a lie his whole life about who he is. And I can’t do
that any longer.”He added, “My brain is much more female than it is male. It’s hard for people to understand
that, but that’s what my soul is.”For decades, his exwives and sister were the only ones who knew about his
struggle with his gender identity. In the ABC interview,
Jenner admitted that this struggle was one major reason
behind the breakdown of his marriage with Kris Jenner,
mother of the Kardashian sisters, Kourtney, Kim and
Khloe. “It shook her,” he told Diane Sawyer during the
interview. “If she had been really good with it and understanding, we’d probably be still together.”He admitted to
taking female hormones during the last few years of his
marriage with Kris, downplaying it when she would confront him about it, because he “did not want to hurt” her.
He was forced to come clean once he started to develop
breasts as a result of the hormones he was taking. The
couple never went to therapy, which could have helped
to salvage their marriage, in Jenner’s opinion.Jenner
also disclosed that step-daughter Kim Kardashian had
caught him in women’s clothing once, and was reviled.
“Kim walked in on me wearing womens’ clothes, she
just went for a drive. Then we didn’t speak about it for
ages. Kim said she didn’t think sh H