‘KUWTK’: Brandon Jenner Opens Up About His Strained Relationship with His Father Caitlyn

When it comes to Caitlyn Jenner, most of us know the version of her from early seasons of Keeping up with the Kardashians. On-screen, she seemed like a dutiful dad to Kylie and Kendall Jenner and even a good stepdad to Kim Kardashian-West, Khloé, Rob, and Kourtney Kardashian. But those aren’t his only children. He also has four other children from other relationships, Brody Jenner, Brandon Jenner, Cassandra Marino, and Burt Jenner. For those other children, their perspective of Caitlyn was quite different, especially Brandon.

Caitlyn’s transition was the reason for her divorce

In his new book, To Me, He Was Just Dad, Brandon details the relationship that he had with his father throughout his childhood, which was virtually non-existent. He says that after Caitlyn and his mom, Linda Thompson, divorced in 1986, he only saw his father a few times.

“They got divorced because my dad decided to start transitioning to female (at least that’s what they had discussed),” Brandon wrote. “I, of course, was too young then to have any idea what was behind their decision.”

“A few years after my parents divorced, Dad decided that it wasn’t the right time to transition and had many of his surgeries reversed. After that, his relationship with my mother grew more hostile. She had worked hard to accept that the reason my dad couldn’t be with her was because he was working towards transitioning.”

But instead of transitioning, Caitlyn married Kris Jenner.

Brandon barely saw his dad

After Caitlyn began dating Kris, her relationship with Brandon’s mom worsened.

“The effect of my parents’ souring relationship was that I didn’t see my father more than half a dozen times between the ages of eight and 25,” Brandon wrote. “Sadly, the infrequent exchanges felt more like staged photo opportunities than real bonding. In fact, they were staged photo ops for “family” Christmas cards: me, Brody, Burt and Casey alongside our father. We were one big happy family. For a day.”

And then as he got older, Brandon decided to stay away from his father and the Kardashian lifestyle.

“After dad met and married Kris, family became a business for him, and I stayed away most of my teenage years,” he continued. “I didn’t want to be part of their dynamic. I know now, though, that Dad was pretty unhappy in that house and felt like [she] wasn’t treated well.” 

How is Brandon Jenner and Caitlyn Jenner’s relationship now?

Though Brandon details a lot of his childhood trauma in his book, he and Caitlyn are on good terms now.

It’s great,” Brandon told HollywoodLife of his relationship with his father. “It’s great. It’s really good. [Caitlyn and I are] close. We’re closer than ever.”

They have been able to bond over their love for flying.

“We do fly a lot, because we’re both pilots, so we like to go and fly,” Brandon continued. “We’ve got a little old plane that we can go and jump in and fly around and look for different airports to go to and then go have lunch, and stuff like that. So, we do a lot of that.”

It’s good to see these two burying the hatchet.