Caitlyn Jenner Considered Sex Change In The ‘80s Ex Linda Thompson Reveals In Memoir

“I am a woman trapped in a man’s body.” That’s what Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner, told his ex-wife Linda Thompson in 1985 after they had their two sons Brandon and Brody.

Thompson wrote about Jenner’s desire to become a woman in her new memoir “A Little Thing Called Life,” and revealed that Caitlyn wanted to go to Denmark years ago to fully transition.

“As we tried to work through our feelings, Bruce told me he was considering traveling out of the country, possibly to Denmark, to try to have the gender reassignment surgery anonymously and then come back as a female,” she wrote, which was shared by People magazine.

“What about our children?” Thompson asked, and although she was taken back by the news, she still felt an incredible amount of empathy for her ex, because he was having such a huge struggle.

“He thought maybe he would re-enter their lives as a female relative,” wrote Thompson. “He was grasping for a lifeline. As devastated as I was, my heart bled for Bruce.”

Thompson also said something similar to what she told Vanity Fair in June of last year, stating that she couldn’t believe how much pain her former spouse was going through and couldn’t imagine what it was like living in a body that you weren’t comfortable with.

“I thought my pain doesn’t compare to the pain that he’s in,” said Thompson. “At least I’m comfortable living in my own body.”

In the same Vanity Fair story, Jenner said her biggest error was downplaying her desire to become a woman to her three ex-wives. She added that due to the other problems she had in life, it made it difficult to parent at times.

“Probably a mistake I made was maybe not having her understand, not the severity of it but that this is a condition you cannot get away from,” stated Jenner. “From that standpoint, maybe I blew it away a little bit, sort of ‘This is what I do.’”

“I have made a lot of mistakes raising the four Jenner kids. I had times not only dealing with my own issues but exes. [That time in my life was] very traumatic and there was lot of turmoil in my life,” she added.

In her memoir, Thompson said she kept her ex’s secret from her two boys until they were adults, because she wanted them to gain some maturity so they could understand what their father was going through.

“I felt such an obligation to keep Bruce’s gender dysphoria his secret that I did not even tell my sons until they were 31 and 29 years old, respectively,” she wrote. “I wanted them to experience life and garner enough knowledge, confidence and compassion to be able to deal with their father’s true self.”