Caitlyn Jenner, 70, is revealing exactly how she feels about the challenges of being a dad. And the proud transgender woman confesses that she actually thinks that “parenting” is “harder than transitioning.”
The former Olympian, who came out in 2015, makes the admission in the premiere episode of a new cable interview series, Hollywood Disclosure with Serena DC.
“Parenting, [is] obviously probably, out of everything you do in life, probably one of the most difficult things you can do,” Caitlyn tells Australian host, Serena DC. “It’s harder than transitioning. Yeah, transitioning’s easy. Fix this, fix that, couple of great outfits. Boop, you’re off. Not with kids, OK.”
As Keeping Up With the Kardashians fans will know Caitlyn has been married three times and has a total of six biological children – two with each wife – and four step-kids.
Her daughter Cassandra, 40, and son, Burt, 41, were born when she (as Bruce Jenner) was married to her first wife, Chrystie. She had two sons – Brandon, 39, and Brody, 36 – with her second wife, Linda Thompson.
Five years after divorcing Linda, in 1991 she married future reality TV matriarch Kris Jenner, with whom she had daughters Kendall, 24, and Kylie, 22.
But she became a pop culture icon when she featured on KUWTK, which showed her being a stepparent to Kris’s older children, the Kardashians – Kourtney, 41, Kim, 39, Khloe, 36, and Rob, 33. During the Hollywood Disclosure interview, the parent of 10, quipped, “I have a lot of those,” when asked about her gaggle of kids.
However, over the years some of Caitlyn’s children have publicly criticized her parenting skills. Son Brandon penned an essay for the book, To Me, He Was Just Dad, which was released in March 2020. And he didn’t hold back in his comments about his famous dad.
“The effect of my parents’ souring relationship was that I didn’t see my father more than half a dozen times between ages eight and 25,” the singer wrote. “Sadly, the infrequent exchanges felt more like staged photo opportunities than real bonding.
“In fact they were staged photo ops for ‘family’ Christmas cards: me, Brody, Burt, and Casey alongside our father. We were one big happy family. For a day.”
Brandon did admit that, ever since his father transitioned, they have had a better relationship. “Now I’m making up for lost time. I speak to my dad almost every day,” he wrote.
Hollywood Disclosure premieres on FYI Network on Saturday July 11 at 10:30am. During the series Serena will also be interviewing American Pie actress Tara Reid and former child star, Corey Feldman.