Bruce Jenner Confirms: 'I Am a Woman'
The 65-year-old Olympian revealed that he identifies as female and is transitioning during a '20/20' special.
"I’m emerging as myself. Isn’t that great?"
Those were Bruce Jenner's words as he sat down with Diane Sawyer during a 20/20 special to reveal that, yes, he identifies as a woman and yes, he is currently transitioning. (Editor's Note: Bruce Jenner said during the special that he currently prefers the pronoun "he," so that's what we will continue to use until he indicates otherwise.)
"I would say I've always been very confused with my gender identity since I was this big," Jenner said, referring to himself as a small child.
''Yes, for all intents and purposes I am a woman," the 65-year-old Olympian also said. "People look at me differently. They see you as this 'macho male,' but my heart and my soul and everything I do in life, it is part of me, that female side is part of me. It's who I am. I was not genetically born that way."
The interview was very emotional for Jenner, who talked about his various family members' reactions to the news and his fears about letting people down. When asked by Sawyer if he ever regretted taking part in the Keeping Up with the Kardashians series, Jenner revealed:
"I had the story. We’ve done 425 episodes, I think, over almost eight years now. And 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 make a real difference in people’s lives was in my soul, and I could not tell my story."
Jenner also shared that this is the last interview that he will do as "Bruce" before he becomes "her." The 20/20 special shed light on the history of the transgender movement, and touched on the troubles that can plague the transgender community, including depression and suicide.
The rest of the Kardashian-Jenner family took to Twitter during and after the special to express their support for Bruce Jenner.
You can check out a clip from the interview below, in which Jenner discusses how Kanye helped Kim come to terms with his transition:
