Bruce Jenner’s ex says: ‘Bruce wanted to be Aunt Heather 30 years ago’

Linda Thompson is Bruce Jenner’s second wife and since his interview with Diane Sawyer aired on *ABC *last week, Linda’s spoken out about Bruce’s journey.

The couple split in 1986 after Bruce told Linda how he truly felt.

“I would venture to say that 30 years ago, very few of us were adequately educated about the world of gender dysphoria,” Linda wrote in an excerpt from her up-coming memoir on the Huffington Post. “I certainly wasn’t. I was living in my little Malibu cocoon of marital, motherly bliss with my world-champion, muscular, athletic, handsome husband. So my reaction to Bruce’s shocking declaration was one of confusion, even desperation. I suggested that we go to therapy.”

At this time, Bruce was a father of four and Linda recalls how he hoped to travel to Europe for gender reassignment surgery. She also revealed he wanted to come back into the family as Aunt Heather.

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Along with this, Linda spoke about the time Bruce’s sons Brandon and Brody noticed his body was changing, after the former Olympian started taking hormones.

She said: “One day, after having spent a little time at Bruce’s house, both boys came into the kitchen and said to me, ‘Mommy, we saw Daddy getting out of the shower naked, and Daddy has boobs!’

“I said, ‘Well, boys, you know how your dad was super-muscular and trained very hard for the Olympics? He had big muscles, and some of those muscles are called ‘pectorals.’ When you stop training and you stop lifting weights, sometimes the muscle turns to fat. So his pectoral muscles have probably just gotten a little flabby and look like boobs. I was trying to shield Brandon and Brody from the truth and protect Bruce at the same time. It was exhausting.”

Linda – and his first wife Chrystie Crownover – have supported Bruce throughout his journey, with Linda adding: “If Bruce had told me about his gender issue when we first began getting romantically involved, I would not have married him. Pure and simple.

“But looking back, I’m so grateful to God, the universe, and Bruce that I didn’t know, and that Bruce played the role in my life that he did.”