Caitlyn Jenner sat down with Jenny Boylan at the 92nd Street Y community center in NYC on Tuesday, April 25, and opened up about her relationship with former spouse Kris Jenner, how she told Kim Kardashian about her transition and more. See what Caitlyn said in the clip above.
The I Am Cait star, 67, revealed that she waited until her mid 60s to transition because she had a of “distractions” in her life. “I got into work, started a family, started raising kids. I say it was a distraction, and Kendall [Jenner] and Kylie [Jenner] all say, ‘Oh, we were a distraction?’ I say, ‘Not you. You, I love.’ It was a distraction from who I was. I love being a parent. They’ve all done so extremely well and they’re hardworking kids.”
The former Olympian claimed she was open with Kris, to whom she was married from 1991 to 2015, about her struggles with being transgender. “We hit it off from day one. I was honest with her. I’m sure I downplayed it. But I was honest with her,” she said. “When I married, her, I never thought … even when we went our separate directions, I never thought I’d be able to transition.”
After their split, Kris went out and found a home for Caitlyn in Malibu, and the momager surprised her by decorating the entire place. “The day we took it, on June 1 at 8 a.m., she said I could not come over until that night. I came over and the completely empty house was fully furnished, every TV was working. She’s so well organized. I give her a lot of credit. The dryer even worked. She bought all new stuff. She has very good taste. She worked a deal with Restoration Hardware. It was a very nice thought of hers. I appreciate that.”
Since Caitlyn released her memoir, Secrets of My Life, though, Kris has taken issue with the ex-decathlete’s claims that the Kardashian-Jenner matriarch knew about her gender identity. “There are differences of opinions. I have my opinion, she has hers. She can go write her own book,” Caitlyn said. “Maybe that’ll happen. But it wouldn’t be as juicy as mine.”
The TV personality also talked about telling her stepdaughter Kim about her transition before her other nine children. “She was very nice, open-minded,” Caitlyn recalled. “She never talked about it again for the next two or three years. You go, ‘Oh my gosh, does she think I’m a freak? Why won’t she even talk about it?’ I didn’t want to bring the subject up again. Years later, I finally decided and I went through everybody. I took each kid, all 10, and one at a time over to my house.”
Caitlyn asked for Kim’s thoughts on her new name, too. “I said, ’It’s gonna be Caitlyn.’ She said, ‘Oh, thank God you stayed with the K’s. And I said, ‘No, it’s with a C.’ And she says, ‘Oh really?’ I had to get a little distance there from the family. She says, ‘Well if you do it, you’ve gotta rock it. You’ve gotta take this seriously and look good.’”
Caitlyn’s highly anticipated memoir, The Secrets of My Life, and Boylan’s book, Long Black Veil, are both available for purchase now.
