ABOVE: Mike Armstrong reports on Caitlyn Jenner’s debut on the cover of Vanity Fair.
TORONTO — Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, makes her debut on the cover of the July issue of Vanity Fair.
The former Olympian and reality TV star, who spoke publicly in April about her transition, posed in her Malibu home wearing a white bustier corset for famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.
In an interview with the magazine, which comes out June 9, Jenner said: “If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, ‘You just blew your entire life.'”
BELOW: Kim Kardashian and other celebrities react to Caitlyn Jenner’s magazine cover
A verified Twitter account for Jenner went live Monday afternoon and the hashtag #CallMeCaitlyn was trending immediately.
“Bruce always had to tell a lie. He was always living that lie. Every day he always had a secret. From morning to night. Caitlyn doesn’t have any secrets,” Jenner said in a behind-the-scenes video.
“As soon as the Vanity Fair comes out, I’m free.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, an organization which monitors how LGBT people are represented in the media, commended Jenner for “accelerating acceptance of transgender people everywhere.”
READ MORE: Twitter reacts to Caitlyn Jenner
Jenner, 65, who has six children and seven grandchildren, opened up to Diane Sawyer in an emotional interview that aired in April on 20/20. “I would say I’ve always been very confused with my gender identity,” Jenner revealed.
“For all intents and purposes I am a woman.”
At the time, Jenner declined to reveal a female name. “If I do, the media would go crazy and I’d never get rid of them. I’ve still got a little bit of time.”
READ MORE: Khloe Kardashian ‘would have felt horrible’ if Bruce Jenner had not started transition
When she lived as a man, Jenner won a gold medal in the decathlon at the Pan Am Games in 1975 and won gold (and set a new world record) at the Summer Olympics in Montreal.
Jenner was named the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year in 1976 and was inducted into the U.S. National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986.
Jenner capitalized on the Olympic fame with endorsement deals and by dabbling in television and films.
BELOW: Scroll through photos of Bruce Jenner over the years.
He appeared in the 1980 flop Can’t Stop the Music, which earned him a Razzie Award nomination as Worst Actor.
Jenner starred in a handful of TV movies before replacing Erik Estrada in six episodes of the police series CHiPs. He had guest roles on series including The Fall Guy, Murder, She Wrote and The Love Boat.
More recently, Jenner showed up in parody film The Hungover Games.
A new generation discovered Jenner in 2007 when Keeping Up with the Kardashians debuted.
READ MORE: How to refer to Caitlyn Jenner
Jenner’s marriage to Kris Kardashian officially ended with their divorce last December.
Married in 1991, the couple has daughters Kendall and Kylie (Kardashian had four children — Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Rob — with first husband Robert Kardashian). Jenner has four other children — Burt and Cassandra with first wife Chrystie Crownover and Brandon and Brody with second wife Linda Thompson.
“Chrystie, probably, would be the first one to know,” Jenner reflected. “I didn’t go heavily into it back then. I said, ‘These are my issues, this is what I deal with. I do a little cross-dressing. It’s going to be fine. We’ll work all that stuff out.’ I had bigger issues than just cross-dressing.”
READ MORE: Twitter reacts to Caitlyn Jenner
Khloé Kardashian said in a recent interview she fully supports Jenner.
“Someone feels imprisoned in their own body for their whole life,” she said. “That’s no way to live. “The weight that’s lifted off of his shoulders, the smile that’s on his face — it makes you so happy that he did do that.”
Many transgender people suffer discrimination, harassment and violence.
The U.S. National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that 63 per cent of those surveyed said they suffered serious discrimination, including job losses and home evictions.
Acceptance is growing, though, thanks in part to high profile transgender people like actress Laverne Cox, fashion models Ines Rau and Isis King, writer Janet Mock, and performer Alexis Arquette.
Celebrities with transgender children include Cher, R. Kelly, and Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.
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