Reports in the US suggest that Bruce, who is Kim Kardashian’s stepfather, has recorded a sit-down interview, in which he reveals that he always felt he was born in the wrong body.
Bruce was famous in the US long before he began appearing as the bemused Dad in the Kardashian show. He is a former Olympian, who won a gold medal in the decathlon at Montreal in 1976. He has six children and four stepchildren.
Reports suggest that Bruce’s transition will be filmed for use in a yet-to-be-named reality show of his own.
Bruce Jenner has grown his hair out.
Some of the physical transformation is already clear: the former Olympian has grown out his hair and wears it in a pony tail.
He’s reportedly had some plastic surgery, to make his Adam’s apple less prominent.
The article, citing a source that is almost certainly the Kardashians themselves, said: “He is finally happy. He is in a great space.”
The euphoria that people feel when they take this step is well-documented.
In an interview with The Weekly last year, Cate McGregor, who was formerly Army speech writer Malcolm McGregor, said she had always believed that she should have been born a girl, and the pressure to transition became overwhelming as she aged.
Cate McGregor.
She was frightened, because she thought she would lose her friends, and possibly her career. Yet the day came when she could no longer deny the essential truth about herself.
“But by 2011, I was in very bad shape,” Cate told the Weekly. “I was boiling over with the idea that I was living the wrong gender. I can’t convey – I don’t have the language – to explain what it was like to live in that turmoil, but it was a nightmare.
“I was waiting for somebody to say, here, take this pill, and it will all be fine,” says Cate, “and he said, it won’t be fine. Can’t you see that? I said, but I’m an infantry officer, I’m married, it’s too late, I’m 50-something years old, it’s not an option.
“I was still so scared. I thought, my fate is to be a tragic figure, socially ostracised. And that was frightening, but the greatest loss would be my marriage. I knew I would lose my wife, and I was completely in love with her, and it broke my heart.”
To finally transition was the hardest, but ultimately the most rewarding decision of her life.
Cate’s transformation was played out, at least in part, in public.
She had a high-profile position as a speechwriter to the Chief of Army. She has since appeared on the ABC’s Australian Story; and on Q and A; and she is now writing book.
Former surfer Peter Drouyn has also spoken publicly about his decision to live as a woman, named Westerly Windina.
“With me, it was like a volcanic eruption, like a supernova. And somehow, it freed me,” he told the Herald, last year. A documentary, called Westerly, tells the whole story.
Bruce is believed to have his family’s support, with Kim saying: “I think everyone goes through things in life, and I think that story – what Bruce is going through – I think he’ll share whenever the time is right.”
However, when a story about Bruce’s transition appeared in People magazine’s website this week, it attracted more than 18000 comments online, many of them cruel.
“He’ll be a ugly old lady,” said one, and “Let’s hope that William Bruce Jenner dies before he gets surgically mutilated … he is clearly disturbed mentally.”
Cate was also bullied online.
