Bruce Jenner Debuts as ‘Caitlyn Jenner’ in Vanity Fair

Former Olympic gold metalist turned reality show star premieres his new look.

By Al Perrotta Published on June 1, 2015

The wait is over.

Bruce Jenner, once “The World’s Greatest Athlete” and more recently the patriarch of The Kardashian reality-TV clan, has finally unveiled his female persona.

On Monday, Vanity Fair released the first photo of Jenner as a woman, along with its July cover story titled “Call Me Caitlyn.”

The glam shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz finds the Olympian-Formerly-Known-as-Bruce posing in beige corset lingerie, wavy brown hair cascading down his shoulder toward a hint of his new cleavage. It’s not a shot you’re going to find on a Wheaties box. (Even if Jenner does compare the two-day photo shoot with Leibovitz to winning the gold medal at the 1976 Olympics.)

Jenner told Vanity Fair that although he had second thoughts after undergoing facial-feminization surgery in March, any doubts about living life as a woman have disappeared.

If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, “You just blew your entire life. You never dealt with yourself,” and I don’t want that to happen.

For the record: Bruce Jenner raised six children and four step-children, achieved Olympic gold for his country, enjoys great business success, and by general account is a kind-hearted person.  Not exactly blowing your entire life.

Reaction to the “Caitlyn Jenner” unveiling has been swift, and mostly positive … certainly more positive than when he told Diane Sawyer in April that he was a Republican. According to CNN, there’s even a trending hashtag #CallMeCaitlyn.

Jenner tweeted as well.

Interestingly, as he did in the Sawyer interview, Jenner refers to Caitlyn with the third-person “her.” Personal pronouns also caused problems for the Associated Press when they used masculine pronouns in its tweet announcing the arrival of “Caitlyn Jenner.”

The tweet has since been deleted.

Even the world of sports is getting into the act. ESPN announced Monday it will honor Jenner at the 2015 ESPYs with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. And not for having put up with the Kardashians.

So what of the reality stars? Famed step-daughters Kim and Khloe Kardashian tweeted their support for their former step-dad, though sister Kourtney’s twitter feed has so-far remained silent.  Also, in the attention-obsessed world of the Kardashians, Kim chose last night — hours before Jenner’s big reveal — to tell the world she is pregnant again. The revelation she and husband Kanye West are expecting child number two came as supertease following the mid-season finale of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, thus guaranteeing Jenner wouldn’t have today’s news cycle all to himself.

As for Jenner’s four kids from his first two marriages, they were interviewed for the Vanity Fair article. However, they refused to take part in the upcoming E! docu-series about Jenner’s transition.

In a video accompanying the photo release, Jenner says, “As soon as the Vanity Fair cover comes out, I’m free.” Or does the Olympian remain in bondage, only now his bondage is public?

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