Caitlyn Jenner says she's very proud of how her children have fared in life: 'All my kids have done extremely well'
Caitlyn Jenner claims to be one really proud parent. On Tuesday, the reality TV star was spotted speaking at WE TV’s 'Real Love: Relationship Reality TV’s Past, Present & Future' panel in Los Angeles, where she opened up about what kind of relationship she currently shares with her kids.
The former Olympian, who publicly came out as transgender in 2015, shares son Burt and daughter Cassandra with ex-wife Chrystie Crownover. She also has sons Brandon and Brody with ex-wife Linda Thompson, along with Kendall and Kylie, with ex-wife Kris Jenner.
"My relationship is good with them," she told panel moderator Sherri Shepherd. "Everyone is busy. Of course, you want to be with every one of them every day, because that’s what you did your entire life. Kylie’s busy, Kendall’s all over the world, but my relationship is still good with all of them."
"Same with the Jenner side — actually, lately, I have probably been a lot closer to the Jenner side: my son Brandon, Brody, all those kids," she continued. "My daughter Casey, we’ve been really close the last year. She’s got three kids."
Ever since Caitlyn transformed from Bruce Jenner in 2015, she became hugely estranged from her ex Kris and the Kardashian side of the family. The entire Kardashian clan made it very clear that passages of Caitlyn’s 2017 memoir created a rift in the family.
In the book, Caitlyn claimed that Kris knew more about her situation than she lets on. But in spite of whatever stance the Kardashian sisters take on her, Caitlyn makes it a point to maintain her relationship with her daughters Kylie and Kendall throughout. According to sources, Kris and Caitlyn "interact when they have to for the kids."
But on Tuesday, Caitlyn spoke warmly about the 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' stars. "It’s kind of amazing to me," she said, reflecting on the family’s long-running E! show, something that she’s no longer a part of. "Take Kimberly. She has been doing this show for like, 12 or 13 years now and has stayed relevant for that entire time. Thirteen years of staying relevant. … That’s amazing to me that she has stayed relevant."
"Kimberly has been out there and she’s extremely smart — all my kids [are]," she continued. "I have 10 kids and 14 grandchildren. All my kids have done so extremely well. The ones you don’t even see on camera are very successful. I’m so proud of my family… They are very entrepreneurial. All of them. They’ve done very well for themselves. They’ve used their celebrity status and the show to build businesses to be out there in the marketplace."
During the conversation, Caitlyn admitted that she still watches KUWTK "once in a while", and also shed some light on how the show is produced. "It’s not scripted at all. They have an idea of what’s going on, but we don’t have any writers or this or that," she said. "But we do get together at the beginning of the year and sit down and say, 'What are you doing and what do you have coming up? What should we shoot? Where we think a storyline could be?'"
"I have to admit that doing that show, I have had some of the best conversations with my children on the show," she continued. "Because it forces them to sit down and talk about these issues. We know we’re shooting, we know there’s something coming up, and some of the best conversations I ever had with my kids were on camera."
Kim last spoke about Caitlyn during an appearance on 'The Alec Baldwin Show' in October. When she was asked whether or not her mom knew about Caitlyn’s gender identity crisis, Kim said she thinks the two, who got married in 1991 and remained so till 2015, "kind of avoided" discussing it.
"She was so in love," Kim said of her mom Kris. "She didn’t think anything would be an issue in their relationship. Did she ever dream that [Caitlyn] would transition into a woman? I don’t think that was ever something she would have dreamed in a billion years."
