After years of rumors, Bruce Jenner officially spoke about his transition to be a woman. It was announced on April 24 dur- ing a two hour special on 20\20 with Diane Sawyer. Jenner spoke about his struggles of being transgender, which started during his childhood. Young experiences of cross- dressing were revealed, when he took and wore clothes belonging to his sister as well as mother. He speaks of his emotional gender, although being born with male body parts.

“I have the soul of a woman. For all pur- poses, I believe I am a woman,” Jenner said. The first person ever told about his feelings was his first wife, Chrystie Scott. Scott and Jenner were married for nine years and Bruce admitted to her how he felt during the first year of marriage. Scott spoke about her reaction to this confession on Good Morning America. “I can’t remember the exact words because what he said was such a shock to me, but he opened up his heart and confessed, and he had to share this deep, dark secret. He told me he want- ed to be a woman, and understandably, I didn’t know what to say,” Scott said. Jenner remarried around 1980 to Linda Thompson and they remained together for five years. The marriage began to collapse when he revealed his true form to Thompson. “That day I began trying to cover for Bruce, trying to protect him and trying to explain away what was clearly happen- ing to his visage. I was trying to shield Brandon and Brody, their two sons, from the truth and protect Bruce at the same time. It was exhausting,” Thompson said. She found Jenner a therapist for gender dysphoria but separated after six months due to Jenner’s plan to continue with gender reassignment and female hormones.

“I have re- spectfully kept his secrets private and would havetaken his confi- dences to my grave, had he not spo- ken out,” Thompson said.

Kim Kardashian West was the first of his six kids and four step-kids to discover his hidden life. The Kardashian family then sought counseling from Gay & Lesbian Alliance

Against Defamation, or GLAAD, and oth- er organizations that support gay and les- bian rights, who ad- vised them to continue using male pronouns until the transi- tion was complete. “I think he has waited almost 65 years to make this decision. I think that when you are finally ready to be your true self then you are prepared for any- thing. He has become ready for the chal- lenge a n d ready t o help other people that might be going through the same thing. That’s something he’s really proud of. That’s something he’s ready to take on,” Kim Kardashian West said.

Kim admitted that she had difficultly when she found out about Jenner’s want to transition and how to address the situation.

“I think that everything takes time. I mean, Bruce wants us to feel as comfort- able as possible and take everything at our own pace, and we love him for that, and we respect him for that. Bruce has always been really really good at explaining ev- erything to us, even though this has been really new and these have been newer feel- ings — not newer feelings for him but for us to digest. He’s done a really good job at walking us through this change,” she said.

Kim continues to express her fam- ily’s acceptation to Jenner’s decision. “Say what you want about us, but we work out everything as a family, and we have the best communication and we sync with each other. I love having so many sib- lings and such a supportive mom, because each family member might be dealing with this differently, but we have each other to go through this experience with, and I’m really grateful for that,” she continued. Kris has also shown love and support towards her ex-husband during this time. “Not only was I able to call him my husband of 25 years and the fa- ther of my children, I am now also able to call him my hero,” she tweeted. E! will began a new documentary series on Bruce Jenner and his transfor- mation from male to female this sum- mer. Although the series has not yet been titled, the eight part one-hour se- ries has been set to premiere on July 26. *At the time of publication, Bruce Jenner had not finished going through the transition.