Brandon Jenner is speaking out about his once-strained relationship with parent Caitlyn Jenner.
“I didn’t see my father more than half a dozen times between the ages eight and 25,” Brandon, 38, shared in a new book of essays written by children who grew up with famous parents titled To Me, He Was Just Dad, Page Six reported.
Brandon explained that things between himself and Caitlyn, 70, changed after the Olympian married Kris Jenner in 1991. The former couple, who divorced in 2015, share daughters Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Caitlyn split from Brandon’s mom Linda Thompson in 1986.
Caitlyn and Thompson, 69, share sons Brandon and Brody Jenner. Caitlyn also shares daughter Cassandra Marino and son Burt Jenner with ex-wife Chrystie Jenner.
“Sadly, the infrequent exchanges felt more like staged photo opportunities than real bonding,” Brandon writes. “In fact, they were stage photo ops for ‘family’ Christmas cards.”
“After Dad met and married Kris, family became a business for him, and I stayed away for most of my teenage years. I didn’t want to be a part of their dynamic. I know now, though, that Dad was pretty unhappy in that house and felt like he wasn’t treated well,” Brandon wrote, Page Six reported.
RELATED: How Brody Jenner and Dad Caitlyn Jenner Repaired Their Relationship After Her Transition
Caitlyn has previously admitted to being absent in her children’s lives before her transition, explaining she was depressed and was in the midst of an identity crisis.
“The big formative years for them, I was really struggling with these issues,” Caitlyn told Diane Sawyer in a 20/20 interview in 2015. “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.”
Caitlyn publicly came out as transgender that same year.
All has since been forgiven as Brandon told Sawyer, “We’re trying not to look back. We’re just looking forward.”
“In seeing him come out to me and explain his true self, I was more proud right there to carry the last name Jenner and to be part of the family than at any time before,” Brandon said.
Caitlyn further condemned her absence in her children’s lives, telling ABC in 2017, “There’s not excuse for not being a good parent, no matter how many problems you have.”
RELATED: World Meets Caitlyn Jenner On Vanity Fair Cover
Brandon has since been open about mending his relationship with Caitlyn, telling HollywoodLife last year “It’s great. It’s great. It’s really good. close.”
Aside from his public relationship with Caitlyn, Brandon has previously opened up about growing up in the public eye — and the challenges that come with it.
RELATED: Caitlyn Jenner Admits Staying ‘Close’ to Her Kids Is ‘Tough’: ‘They’ve All Moved On’
During an appearance on PEOPLE Now in November, the musician got candid about struggling with his famous last name over the years.
“Lately, a lot of the things that I’m recognizing in myself is the fact that one, I don’t necessarily feel worthy of the successes that happen in my life,” said Brandon. “Because I have this thing where I feel like everything was given to me and that there’s not a lot of things that I’ve earned in my life. And that’s just because I’m judging the way that other people view me.”
“I also carry around this weight of feeling like I need to prove myself, that I’m not the person that people might think that I am,” he added. “I carry that around a little bit. And I think I overcompensate for it — I think I used to overcompensate for it a lot.”
from PEOPLE.com https://ift.tt/2VxdhTB
0 comments:
Post a Comment