Singing his praises. James Corden used his monologue on The Late Late Show on Monday, April 27, to sound off on Bruce Jenner and his talked-about 20/20 special with Diane Sawyer.
“Bruce Jenner made a huge announcement in a candid interview with Diane Sawyer,” the British host, 36, began. “Bruce Jenner made it known that now he’d like to be identified as a woman and plans to live her life as such.”
In the two-hour sit-down, Jenner, 65, came clean about his gender identity to Sawyer, saying simply, “For all intents and purposes, I am a woman.” He also opened up about his early experiences identifying as female, and how his famous family reacted to the news.
“Honestly, I thought it was genuinely one of the most incredible pieces of television that I’ve seen in years,” Corden continued. “It was amazing… I thought, ‘I will never know, I will never know. So many of us will never know what it’s like to go through such a thing — the life that he’s been trapped in.'”
“And I thought, ‘But the truth is that there are people out there for whom this struggle is very real and it’s very, very hard,'” he added. “It’s hard for them, it’s hard for their families. Watching it made me think — I truly hope that after this weekend’s interview, that this world that we live in is a better, more understanding, more educated place for them to live in.”
Jenner’s bravery was celebrated across the world, and largely heralded by LGBTQ rights groups. GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, released a statement following the interview, commenting, “Bruce Jenner has shined a light on what it means to be transgender and live authentically in the face of unimaginable public scrutiny. Though Jenner’s journey is one that is deeply personal, it is also one that will impact and inspire countless people around the world.”
Corden echoed that statement in Monday’s monologue, which can be seen above.
“We thank you, Bruce, we really do, for sharing so openly and so honestly,” he said. “It was a wonderful thing to watch.”
