OLYMPIC gold medallist and reality TV star Bruce Jenner has said he is transgender and identifies as a woman.

Speaking to Diane Sawyer on ABC, he said: "For all intents and purposes, I am a woman."

He revealed that at one point he thought that the easiest way out would have been to shoot himself.

Jenner is the stepfather of reality TV superstars, the Kardashian siblings, and has achieved fame through the American series Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

He is considered the most high-profile American to come out as transgender.

Jenner's daughter Kendall, 19, posted a loving message, joining her siblings including Kim Kardashian in unanimous support of their father.

The Instagram photo - a shot of Kendall's fifth-grade homework in which she completes the sentence, "If I could be anybody in the world , I would be ... my dad" - was captioned: "I wrote this in 5th grade ... nothing has changed."