Empathy goes a long way. Larry King opened up during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly about his friendship with Caitlyn Jenner and how he felt after hearing about her gender identity struggle.
The Emmy and Webby-nominated host, 84, said he knew Jenner very well when she was Bruce. “Bruce was one of my favorite athletes of all time. One of the greatest athletes that America has ever produced,” he told Us.
King sat down with Jenner on Larry King Now on Ora TV in May 2017 for what he called a “forthright” interview. “She was so honest. She looked so great. I think it was a tremendous honor,” the iconic interviewer said. “I remember interviewing Christine Jorgensen, and with her and Caitlyn I just felt horrible and that it must be such a terrible thing to be born into the wrong body, to be trapped in a body that is not your gender, really awful.”
He continued, “Also, they are living in a man’s world, both of them with sports and athleticism, and you can’t stand to be a man? It must be awful. I also appreciate that [Jenner] didn’t hate the people that hated her. She knows anger won’t get her anywhere.”
King told Us he doesn’t know why transgender people face so much intolerance: “I never understand why people want to make their lives even harder and discriminate against people who are clearly already going through so much.”
As previously reported, the Larry King Live alum called the Kardashians “unimportantly important” during an interview with Us on April 3. “Why do we care? What do they even do?” he wondered. “No matter what people say about them, we’re clearly drawn to them.”
New episodes of Larry King Now premiere every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on www.ora.tv/larrykingnow.
With reporting by Travis Cronin
