Bruce Jenner Diana Swayer Interview Watched By 17 Million, Reality Star's Ex Wife Linda Thompson Sends Heartfelt Message

“Bruce Jenner: The Interview” with Diane Sawyer in 20/20 aired last night and it was watched by at least 17 million people, making it ABC's top-rated program in all categories for the whole week.

According to a report by Variety, the reality star's sitdown with the renowned host averaged a 5.2 rating/17 share in adults 18-49 and 16.9 million viewers overall.

In the “Bruce Jenner: The Interview” with Diane Sawyer, the former Olympic decathlete-turned-reality star cleaned up his closet regarding his gender.

"For all intents and purposes, I am a woman," Bruce Jenner told Diane Sawyer. "People look at me differently. They see you as this macho male, but my heart and my soul and everything that I do in life -- it is part of me. That female side is part of me. That's who I am."

"I am not gay," he said adding he is not sure yet whether he will undergo sexual reassignment surgery. "I am, as far as I know, heterosexual. I've always been with a woman, raising kids."

"These are all things that are out there in the future for me to explore," he said. "There's no rush for that. And I would do it so quietly that nobody in the world would know."

“Bruce Jenner: The Interview” with Diane Sawyer was watched by 17 million and this number includes famous celebrities and of course, Jenner's family. One person who penned one of the most sincere message for Jenner in the wake of his interview is his former wife Linda Thompson. She described her time with the reality star as “too good to be true” and called him as “the most athletic, high-spirited, energetic, easy-going, manly man imaginable."

She recalled the time when Bruce Jenner said he is a woman.

"'What do you mean you identify as a woman?' I asked. 'What does that mean?' He replied that it meant that for as long as he could remember, he had looked in the mirror and seen a masculine image staring back at him where there should have been a feminine reflection. Bruce lamented, 'I have lived in the wrong skin, the wrong body, my whole life. It is a living hell for me, and I really feel that I would like to move forward with the process of becoming a woman, the woman I have always been inside.'"

Here are the tweets of Bruce Jenner's daughter and son shortly after that interview with Diane Sawyer.