FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2013, file photo, former Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner arrives at the Annual Charity Day hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners, in New York. Jenner made his debut as a transgender... (Associated Press) 
 
 This photo taken by Annie Leibovitz exclusively for Vanity Fair shows the cover of the magazine's July 2015 issue featuring Bruce Jenner debuting as a transgender woman named Caitlyn Jenner. (Annie Leibovitz/Vanity... (Associated Press) 
 
 "Call me Caitlyn," declares a headline on the July cover of Vanity Fair, with a photo of a long-haired Jenner in a strapless corset, legs crossed, sitting on a stool. The image was shot by famed celeb photographer Annie Leibovitz. Inside, more images show Caitlyn in gold lame, a black bustier and a cleavage-baring, off-the-shoulder gown. 
 
 Caitlyn Jenner also debuted a new Twitter account with: "I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can't wait for you to get to know her/me." 
 
 The account broke a record for fastest time to reach 1 million followers, besting President Barack Obama's new @Potus handle with a mark of 4 hours and 3 minutes, according to Guinness World Records. 
 
 Vanity Fair took to Twitter with the cover Monday and said Jenner spoke emotionally about her gender journey: "If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, 'You just blew your entire life.'" 
 
 The cover comes after Jenner's two-hour ABC interview with Diane Sawyer in which Bruce Jenner confirmed the transition. The much-anticipated "20/20" interview on April 24 was watched by more than 17.1 million viewers. 
 
 Prior to the unveiling of Caitlyn, Jenner had said he preferred the pronoun "he," but Vanity Fair contributing editor Buzz Bissinger, who wrote the story, refers to "she." 
 
 The Olympian who married and divorced reality show "momager" Kris Jenner has appeared for years on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." Jenner's own still-untitled docu-series chronicling her transition is scheduled for the same network, E!, beginning July 26. 
 
 "Everyone has been so supportive and so amazing and I think that that's all we could really ask for is kindness and we feel that," said Jenner's stepdaughter, Kim Kardashian. 
 
 In addition to the va-va voom corset cover, Vanity Fair released a black-and-white video on the making of the cover 
 
 "Caitlyn doesn't have any secrets," Jenner narrates. "As soon as the Vanity Fair cover comes out, I'm free." 
 
 Bissinger, the "Friday Night Lights" Pulitzer Prize winner, said in the lengthy magazine story that he had unfettered access to Jenner, both before her transition and after. His approach to Jenner's life is exhaustive, based on interviews with several of her biological children, her mother, her former wives and others. 
 
 The story describes Jenner's painful recovery from "facial-feminization" surgery in March, a grueling 10-hour procedure that had Jenner briefly second-guessing the decision during a panic attack eased in part with the help of a Los Angeles Gender Center counselor who made a house call. There was also a breast-augmentation procedure. 
 
 Now, Bissinger reports, the 65-year-old Jenner is "immensely happy, relaxed, with a shiny sense of purpose and confidence." He added: "She can't wait when she goes out now to tell the paparazzi to 'make sure it's a good shot.'" 
 
 Of the upcoming reality series, Jenner is already prepared with a response over criticism that she's doing it for a paycheck: 
 
 "I'm not doing it for money. I'm doing it to help my soul and help other people. If I can make a dollar, I certainly am not stupid. (I have) house payments and all that kind of stuff. I will never make an excuse for something like that. Yeah, this is a business." 
 
 Jenner said she is aware of the appalling conditions in which many of the 700,000 transgender men and women live in the U.S. and plans to shed light in the E! show on such issues as suicide and attempted suicide within the community. 
 
 She also plans a segment in which she sees if she can still hit a golf ball 300 yards off the tee with her new physical attributes. A road trip is planned on the new show for Jenner and several transgender women to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco to visit a center for transgender youth. 
 
 On July 15, Jenner plans her first major public appearance. She will be given the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at ESPN's ESPYs in Los Angeles. Past winners include Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela and Billie Jean King. 
 
 Among big names to reach out on Twitter in support of Jenner's reveal were some of his children, LGBT advocates and Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama. 
 
 "Nice to meet you, @Caitlyn_Jenner," Jarrett tweeted (and was re-tweeted by the White House). "The brave choice to live as your authentic self is a powerful example to so many." 
 
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 Associated Press writer Alicia Rancilio contributed to this report from New York. 
 
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 Buzz Bissinger, who authored the upcoming Vanity Fair article reintroducing Bruce Jenner to the world as "Caitlyn," can already sense the freedom Jenner has felt since making the transition. 
 
 "A huge difference,'' Bissinger told Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Tuesday. "More open, more honest, more connected, more everything. I think Caitlyn has found her soul that really Bruce never had. I just spoke to her yesterday and she said, 'I'm free. I can live. I don't care about the paparazzi any more - just make sure it's a good shot.''' 
 
 The cover of the July issue of Vanity Fair revealing Jenner to the world as Caitlyn features her in full makeup and a strapless corset in a photo by Annie Leibovitz. 
 
 "If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, 'You just blew your entire life,'" she says in the Vanity Fair interview. 
 
 Vanity Fair 
 
 As Jenner has made the change to becoming Caitlyn, there has been speculation over how much her ex-wife, Kris Jenner, knew about Bruce's desire to transition to a woman. 
 
 In the article, Kris Jenner asks, "Why would you want to be married and have kids if this is what you wanted since you were a little boy? Why would you not explain this all to me?” 
 
 However, she also said that Bruce told her in the early 1990s that he had taken hormones in the early 1980s. Caitlyn contends in the story that Kris witnessed her cross-dressing while she was living as Bruce, while Kris denies that ever happened. 
 
 "Kris was very civil during the interview and she was very open,'' Bissinger said. "She said, 'I didn't know...I had no idea about the extent of his gender issues, really the severity.' I've got to say, I think she's right. I think Bruce downplayed it (as) 'It was a phase of my life, it's over.' It wasn't over, and I think Kris had a sense that whatever happened in the past I can fix it." 
 
 Caitlyn expressed regret about not being a good father as Bruce to his four children from two previous marriages before he married Kris Jenner, saying she was often absent from their lives. 
 
 "One of the beautiful parts of this is that as Caitlyn, they are trying really hard to reconnect,'' Bissinger said. "It's not easy, but they are really trying." 
 
 Her children from her first two marriages, Burt, Cassandra, Brandon and Brody, have also declined to appear in an upcoming E! reality show documenting her transition. 
 
 "They felt they could've gotten money from it, they could've gotten exposure from it,'' Bissinger said. "They said, 'Dad, you have the ability to have a legacy as a sports figure equal to Muhammad Ali. You could be a real trailblazer here in becoming a woman, in becoming a transgender woman, don't blow that with spectacle.' They said, we do not want to participate, and they must have been asked a dozen times." 
 
 In revealing herself as Caitlyn on Monday, Jenner also started a Twitter account that set a record for reaching more than one million followers in a matter of hours. 
 
 Another Jenner world record, and at 65? Who'da thought! Humbled & honored to have reached 1M followers in 4 hrs. Thank you for your support. — Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) June 1, 2015 
 
 I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can't wait for you to get to know her/me. — Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) June 1, 2015 
 
 Vanity Fair also released a behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoot for the issue that hits newstands on June 11. 
 
 "Bruce always had to tell a lie,'' she says in the video. "He was always living that lie, Every day, he always had a secret, from morning till night. Caitlin doesn't have any secrets. Soon as the Vanity Fair cover comes out, I'm free." 
 
 Many of Jenner's family members took to social media to express support for her after the magazine cover had been unveiled, including the daughter of the Olympic great. 
 
 be free now pretty bird. — Kendall Jenner (@KendallJenner) June 1, 2015 
 
 Follow TODAY.com writer Scott Stump on Twitter and Google+.
– Bruce Jenner is no more, and the 65-year-old former Olympian debuts as a woman on Vanity Fair's July cover in an Annie Leibovitz photo with the headline "Call me Caitlyn." VF sent Leibovitz and Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger to Jenner's place in Malibu, where they got "unfettered access." "If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it," Jenner tells Bissinger, "I would be lying there saying, 'You just blew your entire life.'" Jenner also debuted @Caitlyn_Jenner, tweeting, "I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can't wait for you to get to know her/me." She had 153,000 followers in her first 40 minutes. The issue of Vanity Fair is out June 9.