Brody Jenneris getting candid about his strained relationship with his father,Caitlyn Jenner.
“Not having my dad at the wedding, it was a bummer,” Brody said during a dinner with Carter, 30, his brotherBrandon Jenner, 38, and their momLinda Thompson, 69.
“Honestly, it really did hurt and I would have loved to have had her there,” Brody added. “But she had better things to do. Apparently.”
A source told PEOPLE at the time Caitlyn had “work commitments that have been set up for months and couldn’t be changed in the end.”
Those commitments were only communicated to the bride and groom shortly before the wedding, Carter said on Monday’sThe Hills: New Beginnings.
“Right before our wedding, Brody’s dad canceled on coming to the wedding, like a week before,” Kaitlynn told audiences. “Brody really just kind of brushed it off, but he has to have felt something. But he doesn’t express it.”
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Caitlyn Jenner/Instagram
Indeed Brody remained pretty tight-lipped about his feelings at first.
Eventually, he shared that he never felt close to Caitlyn. “My dad and I have never really had a great relationship,” Brody said onThe Hills: New Beginnings. “Through all the ups and downs that my family has had, my mom has always been the rock.”
Thompson, who was married to Caitlyn from 1981 to 1986, encouraged Brody to find forgiveness.
“You’re not wrong to have your feelings hurt,” she told her youngest son. “You’re not wrong to be angry and to feel slighted. But you’ve just got to let it go.”
Cassandra Marino, Caitlyn Jenner, Brody Jenner, Linda Thompson and Brandon Jenner.Harmony Gerber/Getty
She then used her own experiences with Caitlyn as an example, recalling how Caitlyn’s transition impacted their relationship.
“I met your dad, married your dad. I had this great, normal life here in this little house in Malibu until that fateful day where [Caitlyn] said to me, ‘I want to transition,’ ” Thompson recalled. She later added, “My life just did like a 180. In my mind, I had lost my normal, my family, my wonderful husband that I had thought would be forever. I had lost my marriage and the father of my kids. I was devastated. But that was just a momentary reaction. My greater sympathy had to go out to Caitlyn.”
Caitlyn went public with her transition in June 2015. And while Thompson had known long before, she didn’t tell her sons until they were in their late 20s — something Brody agreed was the right choice.
“I don’t give Caitlyn a pass, you know, for not being a father,” Thompson added. “I don’t think there’s any excuse ever to not be there for your children. It’s not what you would ever do, it’s not what you would ever do — to have a child and not call them on their birthday and be a parent to them.”
She added, “I’m not excusing Caitlyn, I’m just saying it’s forgivable. I think everything in life is forgivable, and it’s not even for the other person, it’s for your own self. You have to forgive, so it doesn’t eat away inside you.”
Meanwhile, Caitlyn wasn’t the only one who missed Brody’s big day.
Brody previously told PEOPLE that his famous sistersKendall Jenner, 23, andKylie Jenner, 21,also wouldn’t make it to the festivities.
“My two little sisters, we never even heard from them,” Brody said. “They never even RSVP’d, I don’t think.”
“We sent them an invite but we just never heard anything back,” he added. “Well, they’ll be missed. I would have loved to have had them there.”
PEOPLE previously reported that Caitlyn was planning to throw the couple a post-wedding party in Los Angeles.
source: people.com
