Caitlyn Jenner on Future: ‘I’m Going to Go Enjoy Life’

Caitlyn Jenner addressed her mother’s reaction to her coming out as transgender, as well as how she has reached out to the transgender community and her future plans, in a new Vanity Fair article. Although Esther Jenner, 89, had not yet personally met Caitlyn, the younger Jenner reported that they were already closer.

“We had a conversation the other day,” Caitlyn said. “We were talking about a lot of things, and she goes, ‘You know what? I think I can have a better relationship with Caitlyn than I can with Bruce.’ Because we’ve always had a little tension in our relationship throughout the years…. And so when she ends the conversation, she goes, ‘OK, goodbye, Caitlyn.’ It was very funny, very cute.”

At another point in the interview, Caitlyn said she was grateful that her mother was “extraordinarily open-minded.” She said she’d sent a plane to bring her mother to her so they could meet face to face. “I’d wonder how her reaction will be, but like most people, all the emotions are in the anticipation of meeting you,” Caitlyn said. “Once they meet you and they spend five minutes with you, they go, ‘Oh, OK. I get it, big deal, let’s go on with life.’ And I think my mom will kind of be the same way, especially if Caitlyn keeps sending planes to pick her up and bring her down.”

Caitlyn also reported a new dynamic in her relationship with son Burton, whom she had with her first wife, Chrystie. “He goes, ‘To be honest with you, I think Caitlyn is a lot better person than Bruce.’ I think he’s right, because Bruce always had to tell a lie. He was always living that lie, every day. He always had a secret from morning ’til night. Caitlyn doesn’t have any secrets.”

Since her Diane Sawyer interview, in which she told the world she was transgender, Caitlyn also reported getting a new variety of fan mail – and she said she was replying to it. She even called one transgender woman who had left her phone number at the bottom of a letter and spoke to her for 45 minutes. “Bruce never would have called her; but anyway, Caitlyn calls,” she said.

“I want to know these stories so I can – I have a platform that’s so large, how can I use that to make this better?” Caitlyn explained. “And the only way I could do that is to talk to people.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the former gold medalist said she was as proud of her Vanity Fair cover shoot as her Olympic accomplishments and was happy with the way she looked as a woman, saying she thought she looked, “over-the-top better than I thought it would ever be, especially at my age.”

Caitlyn now says she had a simple plan for the future. “I’m just going to go live life,” she said. “I’m going to go enjoy life.”

Vanity Fair posted their cover photo on Monday and reported that its interviewer, Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger, spent hundreds of hours with Caitlyn in order to write the story, which comes out next week. After the story came out, Caitlyn expressed her delight at the cover on Twitter. “I’m so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self,” she wrote. “Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can’t wait for you to get to know her/me.”