Caitlyn Jenner says her desire to live her life as a woman was the family's "dirty secret" for years. Photo / Getty Images
Caitlyn Jenner says her desire to live her life as a woman was the family's "dirty secret" for years. Photo / Getty Images
Caitlyn Jenner has opened up about life before her 2015 transition while appearing on the UK's I'm A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!
Already a fan favourite of the reality show, Jenner held a candid conversation with her I'm A Celeb co-stars on her second night in SpringbrookNational Park, NSW about what it was like leading up to the year she transitioned, reports News.com.au.
She said things were particularly difficult in the late 80s, when she "didn't feel like she fit in anywhere."
"I did, like, 500 episodes (of Keeping Up With the Kardashians) and it was the dirty secret in the family," she told her campmates.
"I thought I was gonna transition before I was 40, I didn't want to be an old chick but this is the latter 80s and I never felt like I fitted in anywhere," she said.
"I was trying to figure myself out, running around town … cross-dressing running around.
"So you'd cross dress in your car and drive around town?" asked fellow contestant, Irish comedian Andrew Maxwell.
To which Caitlyn said: "Yeah, at the time, I had a turbo Porsche and it was like the day before Halloween and this car pulled up beside me and it's my next door neighbour, I said I was going to a Halloween party."
"All my life I struggled (with feeling comfortable)," Jenner later added, going on to joke about how her transition changed driving experiences going forward.
Vanity Fair 2015: Caitlyn Jenner - formerly known as Bruce Jenner. Photo / Supplied
"Then I got my first DWF, 'driving while female'. I was driving my car and some guy in a pick up truck beeps his horn and you look over and he's like blowing kisses."
In 2017, the reality star and former Olympian revealed how she "got caught" by the Kardashians dressing as a woman before her transition and used to feel like a 'fraud' while working as a motivational speaker for hiding her biggest secret.
The 70-year-old told Lisbon's Web Summit how she was hired to talk about the games and overcoming obstacles to companies all around the world.
"I would stand up there and tell my story year after year after year and deep down inside I was feeling like I cheated the audience," she said.
Caitlyn Jenner with ex-wife Kris and daughter Kendall. Photo / Getty Images
"Because underneath my suit and my nice masculine looking outfit I had a bra and some panties on, maybe pantyhose and they couldn't see it and I would stand out there and look over the audience and think 'you don't even know me'," she said.
Referring to her record-breaking Olympic Decathlon win in 1976, she said how she felt restricted at being "defined by 48 hours in my life".
"I felt like a fraud because I couldn't tell them the whole story. I would go up to my room, I would cross dress and then go out and walk around the hotel …. never getting caught."
In a keynote speech addressing the definition of gender, Jenner said she felt a huge sense of relief at being able to live her life without secrets after coming out as Caitlyn in 2015 in a famous Vanity Fair cover shoot.
