"Yes, and for all intents and purposes, I am a woman," Bruce Jenner announced to Diane Sawyer within the first five minutes of his highly anticipated "20/20" interview on Friday.
“It’s going to be tough. I’ve been thinking about this day forever and what I should do with my life… how do I tell people what I’ve been through? Today is that day, and I get to choose,” Jenner said during the sit-down, as he wiped away tears.
The announcement comes after longtime speculation that the former Olympian was transitioning to female.
Sawyer asked Jenner to clarify his sexuality, to which he (the pronoun Jenner prefers for the time being, according to the special) responded: “You’re going back to the sex thing, 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.”
As far as his sexual preferences, Jenner maintained, “I’m not gay.”
While Bruce and third wife Kris Jenner divorced in 2014, he confessed, “I loved Kris, I had a wonderful life with her. I learned a lot from her.”
Sawyer didn’t shy in confronting Bruce about his marriage to the Kardashian matriarch, as well as previous marriages to Linda Thompson and Chrystie Jenner.
“Were you unfair?” Sawyer posed. “No, I wasn’t as fair as I should have been. I’ve apologized to everyone, I’ve apologized enough for my entire life,” Jenner said.
The interview touched on several key points in Jenner’s personal history, like his resurgence of stardom thanks to family reality series “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
“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,'” he said. “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.”
At the top of the special, Sawyer spoke about how different generations received Jenner: some know her as the patriarch of reality clan the Kardashians, and others a world class athlete. “God said, ‘Let’s give him the soul of a female, and let’s see how he deals with that’,” he said.
“My whole life has been getting me ready for this,” Jenner told Diane Sawyer in one of numerous teasers aired ahead of the special.
The two-hour special was long expected to be Jenner’s official announcement that he is undergoing gender reassignment, which had been widely speculated on for months. ABC described the interview as “far-ranging,” but would not comment further.
David Sloan is the senior executive producer of the special. Mark Robertson and Jessica Velmans served as senior producers with lead producers Margaret Dawson and Sean Dooley for “20/20.”
Last week, the broadcast network shared the first 15-second teaser. Two days earlier, new information about the ABC News presentation was reported by TMZ. The online publication stated that Jenner will “present himself as a woman publicly for the first time” and bid “farewell to Bruce.” But Jenner is not expected to reveal his new name or dress like a woman on-camera.
“Bruce will chronicle his life from age 5, where he identified as a woman,” the site wrote.
“Jenner — who did numerous interviews for the special over a period of time — talks about the difficulties he’s had in life living as a man but not feeling like one,” it continued. “He also spends significant time talking about the impact his decision to have a sex change has had on his family.”
Jenner has also made headlines this year for his involvement in a tragic car accident that left one dead and injured seven.
Reference:msn
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