Now that Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Caitlyn Jenner is running to become the governor of California and continues to be outspoken about her political views, it’s time to take a moment to reflect on her past. More specifically, the biggest scandals she’s faced over the years, as well as her strained relationships with her family members and friends.
There’s no denying that Caitlyn Jenner has lived a colorful, vibrant, and action-packed life. In the 1970s, when Caitlyn still went by her deadname Bruce Jenner, she found a lot of athletic and Olympic success in the 1970s. After climbing to the top of the track and field events, Jenner capitalized on fame. Later on, she became involved in a motorsports career and appeared on TV and films. As we all know, she eventually appeared on Keeping Up with the Kardashians alongside partner Kris Jenner. In 2015, she disclosed her trans identity with the powerful statement, “Call me Caitlyn.” With such intense highs, however, there will always be intense lows. So, let’s take a look at Caitlyn Jenner’s biggest scandals over the years.
Relationship to Sophia Hutchins
Sophia Hutchins became friends with Caitlyn Jenner when it was discovered that she didn’t have a manager following her divorce from Kris Jenner. Sophia found various public speaking engagements for Caitlyn because her life had reportedly become a “financial s**t show.” This led to Hutchins moving in with Jenner, despite their 49-year age gap. After they began living together, they were spotted at numerous events, including Kendall Jenner’s 22nd birthday party. Naturally, rumors of a romance between Sophia and Caitlyn emerged quickly.
When asked directly if they were in a relationship, Caitlyn responded, “We are not going to get into that, but we are very close. We’re kind of inseparable.” There were more rumors that Kanye West was trying to recruit Hutchins as a model for his fashion brand, Yeezy. She was also appointed as the CEO of the Caitlyn Jenner Foundation, an organization focused on promoting equality and fighting discrimination against transgender people. Alas, Sophia eventually denied being romantically involved with Caitlyn. Recently, Sophia reaffirmed her statement: “There’s no hanky panky. I feel like I’ve been saying that for the past five years.” She added that Caitlyn was like “a parent to me.” She reiterated that she feels “blessed” to be a part of Jenner’s family and that they can effectively advance in their careers together.
Statements About Kris Jenner in the Vanity Fair Interview
In 2015, Caitlyn Jenner appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair. This was a majorly positive moment for the trans community and for pop culture in general. But while the cover itself was not a scandal, some of the things that Caitlyn said about Kris in the interview were surprising.
Caitlyn started by saying that, for the first 15 years of their marriage, she felt like Kris needed her more because “I was the breadwinner.” But then Keeping Up With The Kardashians took off and Kris got all the credit and started to make her own money. “A lot of times she wasn’t very nice. People would see how I got mistreated. She controlled the money, all that kind of stuff,” Jenner was quoted in the Vanity Fair article. The KUWTK fans likely recall all the times when Bruce was left alone with his elaborate helicopter toys.
Kris responded to what Caitlyn said with, “He was married to me and he wasn’t who he wanted to be so he was miserable. All I was doing was working very hard for my family so that we could all have a wonderful future, and he was pissed off.”
Republican Political Status
In April 2021, Caitlyn Jenner announced that she wanted to run for governor of California. “Californians want better and deserve better from their governor,” Jenner said during a press release. The media personality has been a long-time Republican, which has always sparked controversy, particularly following her transition. The Kardashian-Jenner family will not be tagging along on the campaign trail, but Caitlyn is hopeful that her family will come around. She added that she hopes Kim Kardashian will advise her on criminal justice reform when she becomes governor.
Caitlyn supported Trump during his 2016 campaign and election. Later on into his term, Jenner criticized him on the administration’s reversal of transgender access to public school bathrooms and that he didn’t allow transgender people to serve in the US military. Caitlyn’s political status as a Republican has always been difficult for people to accept, even herself. She admitted that it was harder to tell her loved ones that she was running for governor than to be honest about her trans identity.
Relationship with Her Children
Caitlyn’s relationship with Kylie and Kendall Jenner is quite amicable. However, Caitlyn has other children from past relationships: Brody Jenner, Brandon Jenner, Cassandra Marino, and Burt Jenner. Unfortunately, her relationships with her other children haven’t been described as the greatest. “I didn’t really grow up with my dad,” Brody said. “When he started the family with the Kardashian family and all that, I didn’t really see much of him.” Brandon said practically the same thing, “The infrequent exchanges felt more like staged photo opportunities than real bonding.”
Caitlyn Jenner has admitted to her failures raising Brody, Brandon, and her other children. “The big formative years for them, I was really struggling with these issues. I talked to all the boys about this after the fact, that, yeah, I didn’t do a good job. And I apologized to my kids for that.” On the other hand, Caitlyn’s ex Linda Thompson remarked: “I don’t think there’s any excuse ever to not be there for your children.” She advised Brody to “forgive, so it doesn’t eat away inside you.”
The Secrets of My Life Memoir
In April 2017, Caitlyn Jenner’s The Secrets of My Life memoir hit bookshelves everywhere. Throughout the book, Caitlyn described her life with a lot of details, especially in relation to her marriage to Kris. “I tell Kris about my gender issues before I make love to her,” Caitlyn wrote. “This will always be a subject of dispute between Kris and me as to how much she could intuit about my gender issues. She insists that she was taken by surprise by my ultimate transition to Caitlyn. I told her there had been a woman inside me all my life.” Alas, Kris Jenner has consistently denied all of those allegations from Caitlyn. “I’m like, what? I’ve done nothing but open my home and my heart to a person who doesn’t give a sh*t… I’ve never been so angry and disappointed with somebody in my whole life. I’m done.”
There were some other disturbing but insightful things that Caitlyn said in her memoir. For instance, she wrote that she thought OJ Simpson was guilty, as well as that Kris is the reason why she became estranged from her older sister, Pam Mettler. In addition, Caitlyn went on to claim that the idea for Keeping Up With The Kardashians was originally hers.
