As an ode to her life with Bruce, Ex wife Linda Thompson opens up to Huffington Post. For the longest she was portrayed as his estranged ex wife and mother to his sons Brandon and Brody. The blog tells every little detail of their life together down to the moment Bruce planned his sex change in the 80’s and wanted to reemerge into his sons lives as, “Aunt Heather!”
In a detailed blog post entitled, “How Living With And Loving Bruce Jenner Changed My Life Forever” Linda Thompson,ex wife of Bruce told their story from beginning to end. Linda first saw Bruce from the bed of Elvis Presley. She had been dating Elvis for a while but once they saw him cross the finish line at the decathlon, she jokingly told Elvis, “Wow! He’s gorgeous. I’m going to marry that guy someday.” She and Jenner finally met a couple of years later at the Playboy Mansion and just as she suspected, the chemistry was indescribable.
At the time he was separated from his first wife and seemed to be in pain, Linda comforted him as a friend and their friendship quickly transpired into a romantic connection. Linda who was a working actress of the Varity Show, Hee Haw and Bruce made a glamorous couple. Linda was open minded and understanding and seemingly completely down to earth. She even welcomed in his two children from his previous marriage, Burt and Cassandra and raised them as her own. Cassandra whom was conceived during a brief reconciliation with Jenner and his first wife was treated no differently. But no matter how “understanding” and “open-minded” Linda was there was no preparing her for Bruce’s confession.
“When Brody was about 18 months old and Brandon was about 3 and a half years old, Bruce came to me one day with a very somber look on his face and said, “There’s something about me that I really need to tell you, something you need to know.” I truly thought he might possibly tell me he had had an affair while on the road. But that’s not what he wanted to confess to me. Bruce told me that he identified as a woman.”
She was shocked. In efforts to better understand her husband they attended counseling. As much as she loved Bruce once she heard the diagnosis, she knew what she had to do. She says, “Being married to a woman was not what I envisioned for my life.” She continued to be devastated and wondered how she would one day have to explain this to hers sons. The day came sooner that expected,
“One day, after having spent a little time at Bruce’s house, both boys came into the kitchen and said to me, “Mommy, we saw Daddy getting out of the shower naked, and Daddy has boobs!” That day I began trying to cover for Bruce”
She now commends Bruce for telling his truth. Although she’s had this story inside for decades she said she would’ve taken them to her grave had he not said anything, because it’s his story to tell. She ends her post by saying, “be kind.”
To see photos of her life with Bruce check out the gallery!
Source: Huffington Post
