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After months of speculation and very moving interviews, the world now gets to meet Caitlyn Jenner, thanks to a Vanity Fair feature.
Bruce Jenner, the Olympic decathlon champion and, more lately, reality TV staple as part of the Kardashian Klan, officially announced she's transgender and transitioning to be a woman in April. Last week, it was "leaked" that Vanity Fair would feature a cover with Jenner as a woman, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. The magazine teases:
Meet Caitlyn Jenner, Vanity Fair’s July cover star. Pulitzer Prize-winning contributing editor and author of Friday Night Lights Buzz Bissinger, who was given unfettered access to Jenner and her family, chronicles the tensions, traumas, and courage that shaped Caitlyn into the woman you see today. Annie Leibovitz shoots the first portraits of Caitlyn, which were taken in her Malibu home. Jenner speaks movingly about her journey, telling Bissinger, “If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, ‘You just blew your entire life.’ ”
#CaitlynJenner takes the wheel...great outtake from the July @VanityFair cover shoot. pic.twitter.com/tiuHqOfWZ4
— Gregory Littley (@littleylittley) June 1, 2015
“Bruce, always had to tell a lie,” Jenner says. “He was always living that. Every day, you always had a secret, from morning ‘til night. Caitlyn doesn’t have any secrets. As soon as the Vanity Fair cover comes out, I’m free.”
It's rumored that Jenner will also have staged paparazzi photographs released soon, too.
During an interview with Diane Sawyer, Bruce Jenner (who asked the media to continue using male pronouns at the time) denied this was a publicity stunt, "Are you telling me I'm going to go through a complete gender change—okay?—and go for everything you need to do for that for the show? Sorry Diane: it ain't happening, okay? We're doing this for publicity? Yeah right. Oh my god, do you have any idea of what I've been going through all my life and they're going to say I'm doing this for publicity for a show?"
I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can't wait for you to get to know her/me.
— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) June 1, 2015
Her family shared their support for Caitlyn over social media:
be free now pretty bird.
— Kendall (@KendallJenner) June 1, 2015
Caitlyn Jenner for Vanity Fair 📷 Annie Leibovitz! How beautiful! Be happy, be proud, live life YOUR way! pic.twitter.com/39fryBwUqE
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) June 1, 2015
Everyone please follow @Caitlyn_Jenner on twitter! xoxo
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) June 1, 2015
There's a reason she's not spelling her first name with a "K" like her daughters and stepdaughters in the Kardashian clan, TMZ reports. Jenner is still very close with the Kardashians but wants her own unique self-identity: "...she has never been her own person before, and becoming part of the Kardashian brood would undermine her goal."