During a revealing interview on The Jimmy Kimmel Show, Caitlyn Jenner teased Jimmy about the times he and other talk show hosts made jokes about her transition.
Back when Caitlyn was still known to the world as Bruce, many late night TV Presenters made digs about the plastic surgery which had dramatically altered the shape of her face.
For any transgender individual, altering your features to reflect the person you are on the inside is an emotional process. It must have been pretty tough for Caitlyn to switch on the TV of an evening and have her changing appearance used as a punchline before a laughing studio audience…
You can watch the good natured banter between the pair in the following clip:
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Speaking candidly about her experiences as a transgender woman, the former Olympian spoke about her Christian faith and her questions over why God chose to give her gender identity issues.
She also spoke about the awkward moment before she came out, when a neighbour caught her out dressing as a woman and she had to shrug it off as going to a Halloween party.
Caitlyn discussed the difficult time in her life when she was coming out as a transgender woman to her family, all the while being mocked by talk show hosts such as Jimmy:
Kris and I, we had gone our separate directions, not because of gender issues but because of other things,
And there I was back in Malibu all by myself, and so I slowly went through, told all my children, because it had been just hammered all over the media.
In fact, guys like you making, hmm, some jokes…
Ouch…
Jimmy was super apologetic and gave the following explanation:
We didn’t know what was happening, we thought you were just vain, we didn’t know what was going on. I’m sorry about that, by the way.
What could have become a pretty hostile situation stayed friendly and light hearted as the pair chatted amicably.
Caityln accepted his sincere apology with dignity and humour:
Now he’s going to apologize! But I accept your apology,
Caityln admitted that Jimmy Kimmel has always been her ‘favourite’ and the pair laughed about the time she gave the decidedly less favoured Jimmy Fallon a real roasting on his show after he made fun of her appearance.
A former running joke among TV hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel, was that the hair choices and plastic surgery of Caitlyn (while she was still known as Bruce) was a move from ‘manhood to womanhood’.
When Caitlyn eventually came forward as a transgender woman, there were red faces all round for those who had made the misguided jokes…
Glad that these two could put the past behind them and move forward!
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.