Bruce Jenner’s interview with Diane Sawyer in which he proudly proclaimed “I am a woman” was watched by nearly 17 million viewers (that’s live viewership only) and sparked a worldwide conversation about what it means to be transgender. The fact that Bruce Jenner is transgender wasn’t necessarily a huge surprise, however, as media outlets have been reporting that for months. Actually, at least one media outlet has been reporting that for years!
Star magazine ran an article more than three years ago in which Robert Kardashian’s widow Ellen Pearson claimed that Bruce Jenner’s first wife, Chrystie Crownover, had revealed to her that he liked wearing women’s clothing. Here is the January 23, 2012 Star magazine cover featuring the headline (at the bottom) which reads, “Bruce Jenner Caught Cross-Dressing!”
Ellen says she was having drinks with Chrystie and they began to talk about her marriage to Bruce Jenner from 1972 to 1981. “Of course Bruce was every woman’s heartthrob when he was that age, right?” Ellen says she asked Chrystie. “But Chrystie said, ‘Yeah, until I went on a trip and I came back and he had gone through all my clothes. And I found my bras… He’d clip them together and wear them.’”
Ellen later revealed that she knew Kris Jenner was aware of Bruce Jenner’s cross dressing, and that Kris was more understanding than Chrystie. One of Kris’s daughters was reportedly not as understanding. “Khloe called her dad and she was very upset, crying and screaming about it,” Ellen said. That lines up with what Bruce said in his Diane Sawyer interview when he revealed that Khloe had the hardest time of all his daughters accepting that he identifies as a woman.
Star magazine later ran a cover story about Bruce Jenner being transgender and a cross dresser in October of 2013. As you can see below, the cover featured a photo of Bruce Jenner and the headline “The Real Reason They Split – Kris’ Bombshell – Bruce Wants To Be A Woman!”
The Star article claimed that Kris Jenner was holding Bruce’s gender identity over his head as leverage in their divorce, threatening to “expose his darkest secret” if he didn’t go along with what she wanted. (That claim has not since been verified in any way.)
One thing that does sort of line up, however, is that Kim was one of the first of Bruce’s children and stepchildren to find out that he likes wearing women’s clothing. From Star:
[Kim Kardashian] asked the housekeeper if she’d seen any lingerie, and the housekeeper said it was in Bruce’s closet. So Kim went inside Bruce’s closet and found tons of expensive lingerie that was all stretched out! She took it all and left. . .
Kim told [Bruce] she had his lingerie. He turned red and walked out. When Kim finally told her sisters, it became a running joke that Bruce wears lingerie. . .
In Bruce Jenner’s interview he was asked about how his kids and stepkids found out, and he talked about Kim Kardashian specifically. However, his story was a bit different from Star magazine’s.
“Kim caught me one time [wearing a dress],” Bruce said, adding that it then became a “big secret” between them. According to Bruce, it was Kim who then walked out to take her car for a drive.
They didn’t really talk about it again until the transition rumors began to surface. “After it was over with, I felt much better,” Bruce said. “But when I brought the issue up again, she said: ‘I just thought it was one of those subjects I couldn’t talk about.'”
Although you probably noticed it in the photo above, I feel I should point out that Star magazine claimed (at the time) that Bruce “has more dresses than Kim in his Malibu home.” If this is true, I hope his closet is going to be featured on his upcoming reality series on E!
