Bruce made the announcement on a special edition of 20/20 with Diane Sawyer.
Editor's note: As Jenner has not yet said that a new name or pronouns should be used, ETonline will follow GLAAD's guidelines and continue to refer to him by his current name and male pronouns.
Bruce Jenner sat down with Diane Sawyer to make a big announcement regarding the Olympian's gender identity.
"My brain is much more female than it is male," said Jenner. "For all intents and purposes, I am a woman."
Jenner, 65, fought tears to make the announcement at the very beginning of a two-hour special edition of 20/20 that aired Friday night, called Bruce Jenner: The Interview.
"People look at me differently. They see you as this macho male but my heart and soul and everything that I do in life is a part of me – that female side is part of me, it's who I am," said Jenner. "I was not genetically born that way. As of now I have all the male parts and all that kind of stuff. In a lot of ways we’re different but we still identify as female. And that’s very hard for Bruce Jenner to say, because why? I don’t want to disappoint people."
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When Sawyer asked whether this was a publicity stunt, Jenner insisted that wasn't the case.
"Oh no! We would never do that Diane," Jenner said with a laugh, debunking rumors that it was all for E!'s Kardashian franchise. "Are you telling me I'm going to go through a complete gender change and go through everything you need to do that for the show. Sorry, Diane, it ain't happening."
Jenner continued to deny speculation.
"I understand where they’re coming from," Jenner said. "What I'm doing is going to do some good and we’re going to change the world. I really firmly believe that… and if the whole Kardashian show and the whole reality television gave me that foothold into that world to be able to go out there and do something good, I’m all for it. I’ve got no problem with that, understand?"
After feeling constant paparazzi pressure, Jenner said he contemplated suicide.
"If I die, I would be so mad at myself that I didn't explore that side of me," Jenner said. "I can't do something like that. I want to know how this story ends."
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In 2007, E! debuted the popular Keeping Up With the Kardashians franchise, which has followed the Jenner-Kardashian clan for more than 400 episodes.
Jenner spoke of the irony that the E! franchise focused on the other members of the family, led by his ex-wife Kris, whom Jenner said he "loved."
"The one real, true story in the family was the one I was hiding," he told Sawyer.