Not surprisingly, it didn't take long for Caitlyn Jenner to win her family over!
The 65-year-old Olympian was initially nervous for her mother, Esther Jenner, and her kids to meet Caitlyn, but as she told Vanity Fair contributing editor Buzz Bissinger, they already prefer Caitlyn to Bruce!
(With the release of her Vanity Fair cover on June 1, Caitlyn has chosen to publicly identify as a woman and E! News will refer to her using female pronouns. In stories published prior to this date, Caitlyn was referred to as Bruce and male pronouns were used.)
At the time the interview was conducted, Esther had not yet met Caitlyn, and the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star was planning to send a private plane to pick her up for a visit.
"You're sending a plane out?" the interviewer asked in apparent disbelief. "You're the cheapest person I've ever met—"
"I know," Caitlyn admitted, "but for my mom I'll send a plane...What I told her [Esther]: 'Isn't Caitlyn a much better friend?' Bruce, he would never send a plane. No, no, no, what a jerk the guy was, OK, Caitlyn is like, 'Send the plane. Mom, we're sending a plane, we're going to go pick you up and bring you down here.' [...] It seems like she has a lot more friends than he ever had."
"My mom is, for 89 years old, is extraordinarily open-minded," said Caitlyn, who anticipated that Esther would react like most people do: "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," she reiterated, "especially if Caitlyn keeps sending planes to pick her up and bring her down."
Caitlyn recalled a conversation she had with Esther in which her mother told her, "You know what? I think I can have a better relationship with Caitlyn than I can with Bruce."
She's not the only one who feels she can have a better relationship with Caitlyn than before. The E! star recalled a conversation with her son Burt Jenner: "He goes, 'To be honest with you, I think Caitlyn is a lot better person than Bruce.'"
"And I really have to—I think he's right," said Caitlyn, "because Bruce always had to tell a lie, he was always living that lie, every day, he always had a secret from morning till night. Caitlyn doesn't have any secrets."
Learn more about what it means to be transgender from GLAAD. If someone you love is transgender, contact PFLAG.