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In a reassessment of her public legacy, Caitlyn Jenner has admitted that her decision to accept Glamour magazine’s “Woman of the Year” award in 2015 was “hypocritical.” Speaking during a wide-ranging interview with Tomi Lahren on the OutKick podcast, the former Olympic champion linked her regret directly to her current political advocacy against transgender women’s participation in female sports.
The 76-year-old media personality, who became the world’s most visible transgender woman following her 2015 transition, has spent the last several years as a vocal critic of trans-inclusive athletic policies. During the interview, Jenner explained that her evolving stance forced a confrontation with her own past accolades. “I started thinking, ‘What a hypocrite I am,’” Jenner said. “I’m fighting the battle to keep biological men out of women’s sports because it’s not right… and yet I’m a biological man who they gave Glamour’s Woman of the Year award to.”
The admission marks a sharp turn from a decade ago, when Jenner accepted the award at Carnegie Hall as a symbol of progress and visibility for the transgender community. At the time, she used her platform to advocate for compassion and respect. However, in recent years, Jenner has shifted her focus toward what she describes as “fairness” in women’s athletics, supporting bans on trans athletes in venues ranging from local school boards to international governing bodies.
During the podcast, Jenner distinguished between her gender identity and her genetic makeup, a distinction that has become central to her conservative political identity. “I’m still XY. Biologically, I’m female—everything’s fixed,” she said, referring to her gender-affirming surgeries. “But genetically, I’m still XY. There’s nothing I can do about that, and I’m fine with it. I have no regrets about what I did.”
The controversy regarding the 2015 award is not entirely new; the accolade was met with pushback from some critics at the time, including the husband of a 9/11 hero who returned his late wife’s award in protest. However, Jenner revealed for the first time that she had privately returned her own trophy in 2024, citing conversations with female athletes and parents as the primary catalyst for the decision.
While Jenner maintains that she is “just glad to wake up and be herself,” her latest comments have reignited the debate over her role as a public figure. For her supporters, the admission is seen as a sign of intellectual consistency; for her critics within the LGBTQ+ community, it is viewed as a betrayal of the very visibility she once championed. As Jenner continues to position herself as a prominent voice in the “biological sex” debate, the return of her Woman of the Year award serves as a formal closing of her chapter as a traditional transgender activist.
