The Washington Post and CBS both parroted a shoddy report that Olympic athlete and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner might “de-transition,” citing a celebrity biographer who has a history of making sensational and unsubstantiated claims about the Kardashian family. Jenner’s representatives have since called the story “idiotic.”
In a May 11 interview with TheWrap.com, celebrity biographer Ian Halperin claimed unnamed sources believed Jenner -- stepparent to reality TV star Kim Kardashian -- would “de-transition ‘in the next couple of years’,” citing her alleged regrets about transitioning. Halperin based the claim on research from his unauthorized biography on the Kardashian family, which also alleges that Jenner came out as transgender to avoid manslaughter charges stemming from a 2015 car accident. Halperin has a history of making absurd accusations about the Kardashians, including claiming that Jenner and Lamar Odom, a retired basketball player and Khloé Kardashian’s estranged husband, are “intimate.”
Halperin also wrote a 2004 book peddling the conspiracy theory that Kurt Cobain was murdered.
Halperin’s history of peddling absurd claims about the Kardashians didn’t stop The Washington Post and CBS from parroting his claims without doing additional fact-checking.
In a May 12 article, The Washington Post’s Early Lead blog repeated Halperin’s unsubstantiated allegations, including conflating sexual orientation and gender identity:
“It hasn’t been easy for Caitlyn. It’s been very hard,” Halperin says a friend of Jenner’s told him. “She’s thrilled she has raised awareness about how transgender people have long been discriminated against, but I think there’s a chance she’ll de-transition in the next couple years. I don’t think it would surprise anybody in her inner circle. It has been much harder than she anticipated. My heart goes out to her and I know her true friends will be there to support her on whatever path she chooses.”
He added that multiple sources had told him that part of the reason Jenner, who has been married three times and has six children, may de-transition is that she is interested in women. According to Halperin, multiple sources close to the Kardashian family told him that Jenner retains her interest in females.
A CBS report similarly ran with the comments, reporting that “Caitlyn Jenner may ‘de-transition’” because she is “still interested in women:”
Following those reports, Jenner’s representative firmly dismissed the claims, telling the New York Daily News that it’s “not worth commenting on such an idiotic report. Of course it’s not true.”
By repeating the sensational claims of a disreputable celebrity biographer without waiting for comment from Jenner herself, CBS and the Post helped mainstream the conservative anti-LGBT myth that many transgender people experience “transition regret.”