Putting him on the spot. Caitlyn Jenner called out Jimmy Kimmel for making jokes about the reality star’s appearance before she announced her transition in 2015.
The I Am Cait star, 67, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday, July 18, and spoke about her struggle with her gender identity. “When you deal with this issue, every story is a different story. Every journey is a different story. I am not a spokesperson for the trans community,” she said. “I’m only really a spokesperson for my journey and then take my platform, which I have, and see if I can make a difference in the world.”
Jenner added that as a “person of faith” she often asked herself, “Why did God do this to me?” Kimmel attempted to make a joke, quipping, “Yeah, why did God do this to you?”
The former Keeping Up With the Kardashians star ignored the joke and barreled ahead. “Why has gender and my identity been an issue in my life since I was this big?” she continued. “And I just go to the point where fortunately I had raised ten wonderful children. Kris [Jenner] and I, we had gone our separate ways — not because of gender issues, but because of other things. And there I was back in Malibu all by myself, and so I slowly went through, told all my children, because it had been just hammered all over the media for the longest time.”
Jenner said, “In fact, guys like you, making some jokes…”
The comedian defended himself, explaining that he didn’t know her changing image was due to her transition. “Right, but we didn’t know what was happening,” Kimmel said. “We thought you were just vain. … We didn’t know what was going on. I’m sorry about that, by the way.”
The gold medalist was forgiving. “No, it’s quite alright. Now he’s gonna apologize!” she quipped. “I accept your apology. I don’t know if you saw when I was on Jimmy Fallon, I gave him a real hard time.”
Kimmel agreed that his late-night competitor was too harsh. “Well, he deserves it,” he joked. “He said some really terrible things about you. He does that a lot. He’s very hard of people.”
Back at the 2012 Olympics, Jenner famously confronted Fallon after he cracked jokes about her facelift. They later ran into each other and Jenner angrily asked Fallon to “stop saying s–t about my face.”
