Caitlyn Jenner reveals she has strengthened her relationship with her Jenner kids while not seeing much of the Kardashians

When Caitlyn Jenner came out as transgender in 2015 in a famous interview with Diane Sawyer, it seemed the entire Kardashian/Jenner clan was behind her, but in a new interview on the British morning show “This Morning,” Jenner is singing a different tune.

For years, her relationship with her eldest children from previous marriages, Burt Jenner, Cassandra Marino, Brandon Jenner, and Brody Jenner, was incredibly strained, and they were almost never mentioned or seen during the run of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.” Brandon and Brody were occasionally on the hit reality show, but Burt and Cassandra were hardly ever in the spotlight. The Olympic champion said yesterday on the UK show that her relationship with her eldest kids has strengthened.

“Well Kris, I really never talk to anymore. Yeah, it’s sad,” she told the show of ex-wife Kris Jenner. “If there’s any communication, my manager kind of talks to her.”

“When you have as many kids as I have, you’re closer to some than you are to others,” she continued. “Through that side of the family [Kardashians], I certainly see them. We do this, we do that. I’m much closer to the Jenner side, with Brandon and Brody and my son, Burt, my daughter Casey…but, yeah, Kris…I really don’t have anymore contact with her.”

These comments come on the heels of the new docuseries “House of Kardashian” which uses unseen archival footage to paint a picture of what life was like in the Kardashian/Jenner home offscreen.

“You kind of know the Kardashian side plus a little bit of the Jenner side with Kendall and Kylie, but I think a lot of times in the media, you get totally misrepresented,” Caitlyn said, adding that she participated in “House of Kardashian” so that her children, including Kendall and Kylie, know how much she loves them.

“I wanted to do it just to say, first of all, how much I love my kids, and second of all, how proud I am of them and what they’ve been able to accomplish in their life. I mean, it is an absolutely amazing story of accomplishment,” she added.

Caitlyn has previously said that she struggled with being a good parent to her six children, especially her eldest, because of her gender identity. 

When speaking with ABC News, Jenner said, "The big formative years for them, I was really struggling with these issues. ... I didn't do a good job. And I apologized to my kids for that." 

"There's no excuse for not being a good parent, no matter how many problems that you have. No excuse for that," she said. 

Caitlyn’s eldest daughter Cassandra also told ABC that Caitlyn took a backseat as a father figure to her and Burt after remarrying, saying, "We have a very complex relationship. He's disappeared from our lives, especially out of my life. So ... I'm looking forward to this next chapter." 

Cassandra also told People,  "My relationship with Caitlyn is much better than [before she came out], but we still have a lot of work to do. We didn't talk for years, and now we see each other every couple of weeks and talk on the phone, which I am grateful for. She's happier and more appreciative of her family. She is trying harder and there is a softness to Caitlyn that is new to me. I think part of that is that when someone is happier, they are just nicer."

Brody Jenner also opened up about Caitlyn's absence throughout his childhood during an episode of "The Hills: New Beginnings." According to Brody, Caitlyn prioritized the Kardashian clan over her older kids. "I didn't really grow up with my dad," Jenner said (via Hollywood Life). "When I was really little, we got to spend a little bit of time. But when [she] started the family with the Kardashian family and all that, I didn't really see much of [her]."

This distance between father and son was exacerbated when Caitlyn missed Brody’s wedding. "Brody tried to re-establish a family bond — but Caitlyn never responded much to calls or messages, and always canceling, saying she had to work or attend an event — but demanding they always turn up to support her at events," an insider told The Sun. "Brody used to get so frustrated. Then when Caitlyn canceled on his wedding, Brody was done... They haven't spoken in around a year now."

Brandon echoed his brother’s sentiments when he wrote an essay for the collection,  "To Me He Was Just Dad: Stories of Growing Up with Famous Fathers." 

"The effect of my parents' souring relationship was that I didn't see my father more than half a dozen times between the ages eight and twenty-five," he wrote, adding that "infrequent exchanges" with Caitlyn acted as "staged photo ops for 'family' Christmas cards."