When Caitlyn Jenner walked up to the stage to accept the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs last week, all eyes were on the reality star and former Olympian.
It was the 65-year-old’s first moment in the spotlight since her groundbreaking debut on the cover of Vanity Fair, and she rose to the occasion with a powerful and moving speech that brought her family members sitting in the audience to tears.
However, as she revealed in a blog post on her website yesterday, the lead-up to the big moment wasn’t all smooth sailing. Caitlyn said that as a child, she had grown up with dyslexia and her “biggest fear” was having to read aloud in front of the whole class.
“That stays with you through your whole life,” she wrote on her website, adding that she preferred to improvise when it came to public speaking engagements.
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Caitlyn’s family supporting her at the ESPYs. Image: Instagram
However, time constraints on speeches at the ESPYs meant she had to rely on a teleprompter to help make sure her message got across.
“For me to go out in front of a group like that and to do the whole thing off of the teleprompter was huge,” Caitlyn wrote.
She also revealed it was hard for her to watch herself on screen later, and she didn’t think her voice was “quite right”.
“While I felt like I looked great and that the gown looked fabulous, I still have a voice issue. It’s not quite right compared to my feminine appearance,” she wrote.
“That bothers me a little bit. However, I hope that people don’t listen to the pitch of my voice, but listen to what I have to say. That’s important to me.”
