Bruce Jenner gets ever-closer to sex-change surgery

It sounds like the much-reported sex reassignment surgery of Olympic gold medalist and reality TV star Bruce Jenner is coming close to fruition. Along with a RadarOnline report Monday indicating Jenner is preparing for a sex change operation “this summer,” my own sources, close to the Kardashian clan, confirm Jenner is indeed moving forward with his plans to become a woman.

Apparently, the former athlete was on track — with all of the pre-op physical and psychological preparation — when he became involved in that multi-car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, last month. In that accident, one of the women involved in the crash died from her injuries.

“Bruce was deeply upset by all of that, especially the woman’s death, as you can imagine,” a family insider told me over the weekend, while I was in Los Angeles. “He knew he wasn’t responsible and doesn’t see any way how he could have prevented running into the back of her car, but that doesn’t stop him from feeling absolutely horrible about it all.”

As for the sex-change process, another longtime friend and business associate of Jenner and his ex-wife, Kris Jenner, said Sunday, “I had really never understood how involved this whole thing is. … I figured there would be counseling and all that, but I just didn’t know how extensive it would be. Bruce is really going through a lot.”

This source has been intrigued to watch his longtime male buddy begin to segue into a feminine personality but notes, “He’s the same Bruce. He has the same interests — like a love of sports and cars and all that — but now he’s slowly becoming softer and more gentle.”

According to RadarOnline, Jenner has been advised to increase his psychological counseling to twice weekly — mainly due to being traumatized by the fatal car crash. “The therapy was required by the doctor that will be performing Bruce’s sex change operation. And it has helped Bruce tremendously,” Radar’s source told the online celebrity site.

According to a someone deeply involved in the production of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” Jenner’s entire extended family has been very supportive as he approaches this sex change, which will lead to Jenner being part of his own reality show on the E! network. “You’d expect the [Kardashian] girls to be supportive — and probably even Kris, since she knows Bruce best. But I was surprised that [Kim Kardashian’s husband] Kanye [West] is also cool with it. I never expected that!” said the show insider.