Us Magazine has retracted an interview with Kendall Jenner it published Wednesday, wherein the teen model confirmed her father Bruce Jenner’s widely reported gender reassignment.
“The interview was allegedly conducted by an independent freelance journalist at the Saturday, March 14, taping of Comedy Central’s roast of Justin Bieber in Los Angeles. When Ms. Jenner denied, via Twitter, that the interview took place, Us Weekly immediately reached out to the freelance reporter. He stood by the interview, and continues to maintain that the quotes are accurate,” the magazine said.
“However, after attempting to reconfirm his account, editors of Us have concerns about the veracity of this interview and the circumstances under which it was obtained. We would like to retract the story entirely and have removed it from our website. We sincerely apologize to Ms. Jenner and her family.”
The Us story quoted Kendall saying, “He’s a wonderful man. And just because he’s changing shoes now, so to speak, doesn’t make him less wonderful. I will always love my dad, whether he’s a man or a woman.”
Jenner hit back hours after the story went live, tweeting “shame on US Weekly for making up quotes. I NEVER said those things. I never spoke to them.”
“How is it legal for someone to ‘quote’ someone and publish it if in fact you never said what was quoted,” she added. A Kardashian spokesperson had no comment beyond Kendall’s tweet.
Shame on US Weekly for making up quotes. I NEVER said those things. I never spoke to them.
— Kendall Jenner (@KendallJenner) March 18, 2015
how is it legal for someone to “quote” someone and publish it if in fact you never said what was quoted. — Kendall Jenner (@KendallJenner) March 18, 2015
The reality TV family has been in a PR blackout since Bruce’s transition plans picked up steam in December. The clan — which includes
The Kardashian-Jenner clan were also the subject of a People magazine cover story this week, which quotes a family insider as saying the divorce of Bruce and Kris Jenner “caused a divide, but Bruce’s decision to share his transition has caused an even greater divide.”
Bruce recently moved from family haunt Calabasas, a tony suburb of Los Angeles, to a secluded home in Malibu, California, where he’s said to be reconnecting with children from his first marriage, said People.
“There were weeks when they didn’t hear from Bruce,” the magazine said of his Kardashian step kids Kim, Kourtney, Khloe an Rob, as well as daughters Kylie and Kendall, whom he shares with Kris.