- Hi. - Hi, Ellen.
How--how are you doing?
We haven't talked in a long time.
Anything new? - No.
Anything--anything new with you?
- No! Nothing with me. - Nothing?
Nothing at all?
No? You look-- you look fantastic.
- Well, thank you. I appreciate that.
- And how does it feel?
I know this is your first talk-show appearance,
and you have kind of stayed away from the press,
other than the ESPY Awards and Diane Sawyer, but...
- Right. - How do you feel?
- Fabulous. - Yeah?
[cheers and applause]
No.
Thank--thank you.
[cheers and applause]
It has been such an experience to go through.
I'm just a very lucky person in so many ways that...
And my experience has been so different
than the people in this community,
and I've learned that over the last few months.
- Right.
- And doing our show. I--
- Which I love, by the way. I watch every week.
It's fantastic... - Well, thank you.
- And educational... - I appreciate that.
- And I hope people are watching it, 'cause--
- We have so many great people
that are putting this show together,
and we're really trying to make a difference
and educate people and open up a conversation
so we can talk about this issue,
because it's out there.
- Yeah.
- People are dying over this issue.
But the things I've learned over the last few months
has just been overwhelming,
and my experience is very different than anybody else's.
- Right.
- I get--I mean, I'm on your show.
I...
There's nothing better than to wake up in the morning
and be able to be your authentic self.
- Yes.
I think--I think everyone can relate to that.
Whether you understand this or not...
- Yes. - Everyone wants to feel free.
Everyone wants to feel good in their own skin.
- Yeah. - And some people
aren't even really sure of what that means,
but some people are aware early on in life
that you feel different. - Very true.
- And I'm watching you learn things every week
and be turned on to a world
that is something you probably--
- Very different. - Yeah.
You--you knew you wanted to make this change,
and you knew you wanted to become a woman,
but you didn't know what that meant.
Yeah. - That's exactly right.
I had no idea.
- Like, what is the--what is the biggest surprise to you,
and do you ever think you would do it differently?
Or that--that-- do you ever wonder,
"Should I have done it earlier?"
- I've thought about that: "Could I have done it earlier?"
For me, it just wasn't the time.
Back in the '80s, I went through a real difficult time.
I isolated myself.
I lived six years basically by myself
up in the mountains in Malibu.
I never really left the house besides just to go to work.
I was on hormones.
I thought for sure I was gonna transition
before I was 40 years of age,
and I got to 39 and just couldn't do it.
I mean, I just--I couldn't go any farther,
and so I thought, "Well, I'm getting back into the game,"
and, you know, "Let's get back into life.
I'm wasting my life away,"
and that's when I met Kris, a few months later,
and the next 23 years, I raised a family.
And it's the best part of my life.
It's a wonderful time.
But I got to this point in my life,
that all of a sudden, now, there I was, back in Malibu,
all by myself in a house,
with the same issues I had had when I was ten years old.
What am I going to do?
How can, at this point in my life...
It seems like--
I had a lot of conversations with a lot of people,
with all of my family members--
everybody within the family--
with my pastor,
and now is the time, you know?
I've raised my family.
I've got just wonderful children.
I've done so much in my life
that maybe now is the time to talk on this issue,
to come out publicly.
'Cause I was getting destroyed in the tabloids.
- So here's something that I read
that I think is really fascinating,
and this is really gutsy of you.
You were doing these motivational speeches.
You were traveling around the country
and being a motivational speaker as an athlete.
- Right.
- As a--as Olympian.
And, under your suit, you were wearing
a bra and pantyhose to feel like yourself.
- I did. Yeah.
- Weren't you-- - I did do that a lot.
- Right, and did you get nervous that if someone, you know,
patted you on the back or something,
they would feel a bra?
- I was always wearing a suit,
so they couldn't really feel anything under it.
I was...
I was very stealthy.
I was good at this stuff.
I would literally go back to the hotel room,
cross-dress, walk out around the hotel,
and they never knew.
- And they didn't know it was you?
They couldn't recognize you?
- No. - How could--I mean,
I think I would recognize
if it was Bruce Jenner dressed as a woman.
- Okay, but they don't expect me to be in that position,
and so you can be a little bit more stealthy that way.
'Cause they would never, in a billion years,
ever think that. - Yeah.
- Okay?
So I never got caught.
Never had a problem. - Wow.