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Caitlyn Jenner

Bruce Jenner's three ex-wives weigh in

Ann Oldenburg
USA TODAY
Bruce Jenner sat down with ABC's Diane Sawyer to tell his story.

Bruce Jenner's first wife, Chrystie Crownover, says that her husband first told her that he wanted to be a woman in 1972.

"I can't remember the exact words because it was such a shock, but he opened up and confessed, said Crownover, who is now Chrystie Scott, in an interview with Good Morning America on Monday. "Understandably, I was speechless. I was really pleased that he shared that intimacy with me, that he trusted me with his deepest, darkest secret."

She went on to say that she grappled with the news at first.

"It's so hard to wrap your head around this particularly because he was such a manly man. He never indicated anything feminine in his demeanor. But it didn't threaten me. It didn't threaten our marriage."

It was "kind of surreal," she said, to watch Diane Sawyer's Friday night interview with Jenner and several of his kids.

It was also difficult for her "to see him go through this anguish. I know it's been painful for him." She said at one point, she "reached over and tried to give him a little comfort. It was sad."

But, it was also "cathartic."

Bruce Jenner's second wife, Linda Thompson, penned an essay for The Huffington Post, detailing their romance and marriage. They met in 1979 and married in 1981.

"The Bruce I knew back then was an easygoing, down-to-earth, casual, romantic, good and loving man. I was extremely happy to have found such a remarkable partner with whom to share my life. I found him to be honorable and, well, just too good to be true. Just too good to be true indeed."

She, too, talks of Jenner's masculinity.

"Bruce was pretty much the perfect specimen of a man. Men aspired to be like him and wanted to hang out and play sports with him, and women were clearly attracted to him. The Bruce I knew back then was unstudied, affable, and seemingly very comfortable in his own skin. So it seemed."

About three years into the marriage, Jenner told her he "identified as a woman."

She asked him what that meant and he told her, "I have lived in the wrong skin, the wrong body, my whole life. It is a living hell for me, and I really feel that I would like to move forward with the process of becoming a woman, the woman I have always been inside."

They tried therapy for a while, but eventually split in 1986. "Being married to a woman was not what I had envisioned for my life," she said.

Now, she writes, "He can finally realize his need to be who he authentically is, who he was born to be. That takes tremendous courage. For that I commend him."

Bruce Jenner's third wife, Kris Jenner, gave her support in a tweet, calling him a "hero":

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