In 2015, Caitlyn Jenner shared her gender in a TV interview

On this day in 2015 Caitlyn Jenner shared that she was transgender is a sit-down interview with broadcaster Dianne Sawyer.  The former athlete and reality TV star later shared her new name with the public.

The Olympic champion, actor and reality television star spoke at length about her gender identity and his decision to start living openly as a woman.

Jenner said she wasn’t fond of the expression ‘trapped in a guys body’, as her body was her own, but described how in her brain she was definitely female.

“My brain is much more female than it is male. People look at me differently. They see this macho male, but this female side is part of me, it’s who I am. I was not genetically born that way, and so now I have all the male parts and all that kind of stuff so in a lot of ways we’re different but we still identify as female.” Jenner said.

Jenner’s two hour feature interview followed months of tabloid speculation and rumour following her separation and divorce from third wife Kris. The couple, their children and step children are featured in the reality TV show Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Kris Jenner was previously married to high powered Hollywood attorney Robert Kardashian. Caitlyn Jenner has four children from her first two marriages and two children with Kris Jenner, while she has four children from her marriage to Robert Kardashian.

Jenner first came to fame as an Olympic athlete winning the Decathlon at the 1976 Olympics. She later went on to have an acting career appearing in the Village People film You Can’t Stop the Music and the hit TV series CHiPs.

During the interview Jenner shared that she’d been confused about her gender as a child and that she’d previously begun transitioning in the 1980’s but had stopped hormone treatment when she met Kris.

The then 65-year-old told Diane Sawyer that she couldn’t imagine getting to the end of her life and not living as who she really is.

In the years since she shared her gender status Jenner has featured in her own TV series I Am Cait, and on in 2021 announced her run to be the next governor of California. When the votes were counted Jenner received only 1% of the vote.

In recent years Jenner has drawn criticism for her conservative views on transgender rights, her vocal opposition to transgender women playing competitive sports, and her support for rolling back women’s access to abortion services.

OIP Staff, this post was first published in 2021 and has subsequently been updated. 

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