“I’m not gay.”
Bruce Jenner said the words emphatically.
Jenner admitted he’s identified as a woman his entire life going back to his roots in suburban New York, before he was America’s Olympic hero. But he has never been attracted to other men.
“Oh my God, is he gay? No, I’m not gay,” Jenner told Diane Sawyer during their interview special on ABC Friday.
“I am not gay. I am, as far as I know, heterosexual,” Jenner added. “I’ve never been with a guy.”
BRUCE JENNER’S MOTHER CONFIRMS TRANSITION INTO A WOMAN
When Sawyer pressed the one-time sex symbol and Wheaties box cover boy on the apparent disconnect between coming out as a woman and his sexuality, Jenner confidently confirmed he is not into men.
“You’re going back to the sex thing, and it’s apples and oranges,” Jenner said, bemused.
BRUCE JENNER CRUSHES WORLD RECORD, WINS DECATHLON GOLD IN 1976 OLYMPICS
Jenner has always been the picture of masculinity. He was a basketball, football and track MVP at Newtown High School in Connecticut. But he was always harboring a gender-bending secret.
One thing that’s always been true is his passion for women. That’s no longer the case, he told Sawyer.
“I’m asexual,” Jenner said.
“There’s two different things here,” Jenner explained. “Sexuality is who you personally are attracted to — who turns you on — male or female. But gender identity has to do with who you are as a person and your soul, and who you identify with inside, OK?”
BRUCE JENNER INVOLVED IN A DEADLY FOUR-CAR PILEUP
Dr. Norman Spack, of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, has treated 200 transgender adults and echoed Jenner’s assessment.
“Sexual orientation is who you go to bed with,” Spack told ABC News. “Gender identity is who you go to bed as.”
Follow on Twitter @jmolinet
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.