LOS ANGELES: US Olympic champion turned reality TV star Bruce Jenner came out as transgender on Friday, saying: “For all intents and purposes, I’m a woman.”

In a highly-anticipated TV interview the 65-year-old said he had wrestled with his identity since he was small.

“I’ve always been confused about my gender identity since I was this big,” he told ABC’s celebrity interviewer Diane Sawyer.

“Here I am, stuck — and I hate the word — (a) girl stuck in a guy’s body. I hate that terminology.”

Asked point blank if he was a woman, Jenner said: “Yes. For all intents and purposes, I’m a woman. People look at me differently.”

Speculation that the actor, race-car enthusiast and 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics decathlon gold medalist was undergoing a sex change has been rich fodder for supermarket tabloids for months.

Supposed telltale signs, based on paparazzi photos from the streets of Los Angeles, include shaved limbs and long hair worn in a ponytail.