Bruce said he reached a point where he felt his purpose in life was to champion transgender rights, so fully embraced his journey towards transition as his marriage with Kris came to an end
Revelations: Bruce said this is the last time he will appear as Bruce before he becomes 'her'
On Friday night, Jenner revealed he embarked on hormone therapy and electrolysis within 10 years of becoming an Olympic champion in 1976.
However, fear drove him to stop the process and continue giving motivational speeches as a man, he said.
'I felt like a liar,' he told Sawyer, reflecting on the speeches he gave, telling people to 'find the champion inside you' while wearing a suit. He admitted he would go back to his hotel after each event, take off his suit, and dress as 'her'.
Both his first and second wives knew about his secret, he revealed.
'Chrystie was the first one to know,' he said of his first wife. 'I said these are my issues, this is what I deal with.'
She was loving, he said, but fundamentally believed she could change him.
Linda Thompson, his second wife, knew it was something deeper,
And for the first time, he has revealed that Kris Jenner always knew about his internal torment.
She saw him cross-dressing, he revealed, but he found it difficult to fully express how deep his feelings sat; that his believed his soul to be female.
'I kind of downplayed it,' Jenner told Sawyer of the early days in his relationship with Kris. 'I feel like in a lot of ways, when you loves somebody, you have a tendency, you don't want to hurt them.'
He claims Kris was relatively low-key when she found out. 'She didn't say much... "OK, you gonna change now?"'
Bruce added: 'I probably was not as good at saying, "This is really down deep in my soul and I don't know if I can go any farther like this."
'It was tough on her.
'You see your husband, I get that. I understand...Kris is a good woman. I've got no complaints with her. She's a good person.'
Family man: Bruce and Kris tied the knot in April 1991 just months after meeting. Seen here in 2000 with their daughters Kendall and Kylie, the couple were married for 22 years. Bruce found fame again with a whole new generation thanks to the reality series about their blended family Keeping Up With The Kardashians
Reality stars: The advent of one of the world's biggest ever reality shows prompted Bruce to halt his process
He said if Kris had been 'good about it' they 'probably would still be together'
The couple stayed together for more than two decades, raised Kris's four children, Bruce's four children, and their two biological daughter Kendall and Kylie.
Despite having 'a great sex life', Bruce said, he could no longer hide his 36B breasts.
And he added: 'If she had been good about it, we'd probably still be together.'
ABC said Chrystie, Linda and Kris were asked for comments.
Though the show says Chrystie and Linda commented and Kris declined, the Kardashian momager claims ABC never contacted her.
Gossip writer Perez Hilton tweeted: 'Kris Jenner has no comment for ABC news and the #BruceJenner interview. His other two ex-wives give supportive statements.'
Kris tweeted back: 'F*** you Perez no one asked me to comment ....and I'm sitting with Bruce now watching this show so let's keep it real...LOL....'
Since achieving fame in 1976, when he won Olympic gold in the men's decathlon, Bruce, now 65, has notoriously undergone countless cosmetic procedures, from multiple nose jobs to the shaving down of his Adam's apple, many of which - including a revisionary face lift - have been documented as part of his well-known reality series Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
Now sporting manicures and ponytails, the former Playgirl cover hunk has evolved from being the picture of American manliness into a favorite feminine topic of tabloid speculation.
After taking home the gold, Bruce was a national hero - and a national heartthrob. Muscles bulging, the athletic champ quickly became the media's darling, and appeared in a variety of advertisements, including a Wheaties box cover, as well as many magazine covers.
Body hair gone: Since this hairy-legged high jumper competed in Canada in 1976, he has reportedly undergone numerous electrolysis treatments, and photos from the 1975 Pan Am Games show a more hirsute physique
Before the changes: Bruce, seen here on set, still had his athletic physique and heavy set masculine features when he appeared in the 1980 film Can't Stop The Music. These were noticeably gone by the end of the decade
Changing body: In March, Bruce sparked further speculation about his plans to transition, when he was pictured with what appeared to be breasts, just a few months after it was reported that he had undergone a breast augmentation
In 1982, he famously posed shirtless on the cover of Playgirl magazine alongside then-wife Linda Thompson, now 64, epitomizing the manly ideal of a strong athlete with a hairy chest.
But underneath that uber-masculine exterior, Bruce confirms, he was already looking to transition from a man to a woman.
He told Diane Sawyer that in the mid-1980s, he started hormone therapy.
He was undergoing electrolysis to rid himself of his 'repulsive' facial hair, and had already gone under the knife in a bid to make himself look more like a woman.
In 1984, he got what his future step-daughter Kim Kardashian would later describe as an 'ill-advised' nose job and facelift. He had also noticeably begun thinning out his eyebrows, which only made him look like a better-groomed metrosexual.
On Friday, speaking in front of millions of viewers, including Kim Kardashian and her family, Bruce tearfully revealed: 'To all extents and purposes, I am a woman.
'My brain is much more female than it is male. That's what my soul is. Bruce lives a lie. She is not a lie.' He firmly added: 'I can't do it anymore.'
Bruce revealed Kim Kardashian was the first of his stepdaughters to see him in a dress
Bruce reveals all his stepdaughters and his two teenage biological daughters (pictured together) have come to be supportive though they all cried at first, and Khloe (far right) found it difficult to accept
Clutching a tissue, Bruce remarked: 'We have to keep our sense of humor about this. Me of all people - Bruce Jenner - has to deal with these issues.'
Seconds later, he finally answered the question that has been on everyone's lips for the past year - is he transitioning from a man into a woman?
'I have always been very confused with my gender identity since I was this big,' admitted Bruce, lowering his hand to several feet above the ground.
'I identify as female. My whole life has been getting me ready for this. I'm really excited about the future, about what good I could do in the world.'
He revealed how he had explained his identity to his children. '[I told them] 'God's looking down, making little Bruce. He gave me all these wonderful qualities. [But then He thought] wait a second, we've got to give him something in his life to struggle with. Let's give him the soul of a female'.' he said.
Despite his self-proclaimed 'female soul', Bruce said he does not describe himself as a woman stuck in a man's body. 'I'm a person and that's who I am,' he said. 'I'm not stuck in anyone's body. It's just me. It's who I am.' He added that tonight's interview will be his last one as Bruce, as a 'he'.
And when asked if he dreams as a woman, he said he 'always' has done.
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