'Why does daddy have boobs?' Linda Thompson tells how she was in a 'state of upheaval' when then-husband Bruce Jenner first began transitioning into a woman in the 1980s

Forty years ago on a hot July night in Memphis in 1976, beauty pageant queen Linda Thompson and Elvis Presley, were lying in bed together at Graceland, watching the Montreal Summer Olympics.

They were both closely focused on the toned body of American athlete then known as Bruce Jenner, who was leading the decathlon competition and then crossed over the finish line to win the Olympic gold medal.

In awe of Jenner, Elvis told his queen: 'Damn if that guy is not handsome! I'm not gay, but damn he's good looking.'

Thompson agreed the athlete was gorgeous and blurted out: 'I'm going to marry that guy someday.'

'Yeah, sure, honey, over my dead body,' Elvis scoffed. The King's words were prophetic.

Thompson, Miss Tennessee in the Miss USA contest in 1972, did marry Jenner  - now known as Caitlyn - four years after Elvis died in August 1977.

Former Miss Tennessee Linda Thompson describes her relationship with Caitlyn Jenner - then known as Bruce (pictured together in 1983) - when he told her he identified as a woman in the 1980s

When Thompson was watching Bruce Jenner (center, in red) compete in the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976, she told her then boyfriend, Elvis, when she blurted out, 'I'm going to marry that guy someday'

'Those were the happiest days of my life. I had a wonderful husband, who was the most athletic, high-spirited, energetic, easygoing, manly man imaginable,' Thompson recalls in her upcoming book, A Little Thing Called Life: On Loving Elvis Presley, Bruce Jenner, and Songs in Between.

'I had two beautiful, healthy baby boys,' she said. 'Life was just about as good as it gets.'

Life was at it most glorious - until Jenner confessed to her one day that he had a deep secret: He identified as a woman.

Thompson's world changed in that instant - her idyllic bliss was shattered.

For the sake of her two young sons, she made a promise to herself that she wouldn't reveal the Olympian's gender dysphoria until Jenner did. She kept that secret for almost 30 years.

Thompson, now 66, has broken her silence and fills in all the details of Jenner's early transition and her years with Presley in her upcoming book, which will be released August 23.

Before marrying Jenner, Thompson first met Elvis while watching a midnight screening at the Memphian Theatre. He scoped out Miss Tennessee on his way to the men's room and then set up the introduction.

He had her sit beside him, put his arm around her back and quickly told her he was getting divorced from his then-wife, Priscilla. 

But it wasn't long before Elvis made the move on Thompson and they started kissing in the theater.

Before marrying Jenner, Thompson dated Elvis (pictured together in 1974), who she first met while watching a midnight screening at the Memphian Theatre

'We just hit it off immediately because we grew up in Memphis. We had the same religious beliefs,' Thompson writes. 'The same love for our family, devotion to mother and father.

'We had the same sense of loyalty, and we enjoyed the same cuisine because we were both Southerners. We became kindred spirits'.

That same night, the couple headed to Graceland. After riding around Graceland in a golf cart, they went up to his bedroom.

'We kissed, we made out - which was wonderful - and then we read the Bible,' Thompson writes. 

Thompson, who began entering beauty pageants as a way up the social ladder, chose not to return to her studies at Memphis State University that fall.

Instead, she moved into Graceland and stayed close by his side for more than four years.

But Thompson was on to Elvis's drug problem from her first days with him in Vegas, when he invited her on a trip to Sin City soon after meeting at the Memphian Theatre.

If he fell asleep with food in his mouth, she dug it out to keep him from choking to death. She was alert to possible overdosing and always ready to call a doctor.

Meanwhile, she pursued a career in show business and knew that when she was out of town, multiple girls shared Elvis' bed.

After four years of living with his drug abuse and infidelity, she moved on from being lover, mother, nurse, companion and confidante in 1976.

But after her split from Elvis, Thompson met Jenner (left) at celebrity tennis tournament the Playboy Mansion in 1979, where as a cast member of the '70s TV variety show Hee Haw (pictured on left in right photo), Thompson was at the tournament to hand out trophies

Thompson and Jenner were married in January 1981 on Waikiki Beach in Oahu, Hawaii, a dream location for Thompson that had been inspired by Elvis's movie, Blue Hawaii

She headed out to the West Coast to find a better life - in show business.

Life started looking up again in the spring of 1979 when she met Bruce Jenner at a celebrity tennis tournament benefiting the John Tracy Clinic for deaf children.

It was being held at the Playboy Mansion, Thompson's first visit to the storied home of Hugh Hefner and temporary residence of Jenner since his split from wife, Chrystie Scott, the mother of Jenner's two oldest children, Burt and Casey.

As a cast member of the '70s TV variety show Hee Haw, Thompson was at the tournament to hand out trophies to the match winners.

Jenner won the tournament and when she handed him the silver cup, a flirtation and romance began.

'The Bruce I knew back then was an easygoing, down-to-earth, casual, romantic, good and loving man,' Thompson writes. 'I was extremely happy to have found such a remarkable partner with whom to share my life.

'I found him to be honorable and, well, just too good to be true.'

When she learned she was pregnant in the fall of 1980, she was deliriously happy.

They were married in January 1981 on Waikiki Beach in Oahu, Hawaii, a dream location for Thompson that had been inspired by Elvis's movie, Blue Hawaii.

'Those were happy days for me,' she writes. 'Bruce and I made quite a great couple at the time.'

The Olympic athlete taught her all the sports he loved, to eat healthy food, work out regularly, and to lose her fear of getting her hair wet while swimming.

'Bruce and I spent our days living at the beach, jet skiing, walking on the beach every morning with our coffee, sailing on a Hobie Cat, playing tennis… I thought we lived a pretty idyllic life,' she writes.

But Thompson's life changed in early 1985, when Jenner confessed that for years he saw a masculine image in the mirror staring back at him when it should have been that of a woman.

'I have lived in the wrong skin, the wrong body, my whole life,' she recalls Jenner saying. '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.'

Thompson recalls her sons Brody and Brandon (pictured with Thompson in 1987) saying that 'Daddy has boobs!' when seeing their father get out of the shower

Thompson's reaction was one of confusion and desperation. She suggested they seek therapy thinking they could work through this, overcome or 'fix' it.

She had yet to learn 'we are who we are in the deepest recesses of our minds, hearts'.

So the couple started seeing gender dysphoria therapist Dr Gertrude Hill who 'broke my heart into a million pieces'.

'Linda, this is who Bruce is. His identity is that of a woman, and that will never, ever go away,' she recalls the therapist saying.

She advised Thompson that 25 per cent of transgender people end up committing suicide.

Thompson's options were to stay with Jenner after tranitioning or divorce and move on.

Jenner discussed traveling to Denmark to become a woman and coming back into the lives of their two children as 'Aunt Heather'.

'It was extremely difficult for me to comprehend, and adjust my life to the realization that the man I had married - the very masculine, gorgeous, ideal, wonderful hunk of a man - would be no more,' Thompson recalls.

'It truly was like mourning the death of the person I had grown to know and love.'

She and Jenner separated after trying therapy for six months.

'Being married to a woman was not what I had envisioned for my life,' Thompson writes.

She supported Jenner in the decision and decided to focus on their sons and move on.

Thompson describes her relationship with Jenner in her upcoming book, A Little Thing Called Life On Loving Elvis Presley, Bruce Jenner, and Songs in Between

Soon after, Jenner began taking female hormones. Her breasts began to grow and she began electrolysis on her heavily bearded face as well as having chest hair removed.

'My life, my psyche, my femininity, my sexuality, my sanity was in a state of upheaval,' Thompson recalls.

The couple divorced and Thompson waived child support and alimony while allowing Jenner to visit their sons, Brandon and Brody, as much as she wanted.

The two boys went to Jenner's house on occasion but never overnight.

Thompson recalls her sons saying that 'Daddy has boobs!' when seeing their father get out of the shower.

Thompson covered for Jenner saying that it happens if you stop training and lifting weights. The pectoral muscles get flabby and look like breasts.

Thompson moved on quickly and started dating Canadian composer and record producer David Foster.

Jenner was well into her transition now and her new life as a woman.

Jenner now identifies as Caitlyn, after publicly coming out as transgender in April 2015. Her name and gender change became official in September of the same year

Thompson moved on after divorcing Jenner and married David Foster (the couple pictured above with Thompson's two sons, Brody, left, and Brandon, second left) in 1991 and divorced him in 2005

'He had no facial hair, no chest hair, and boobs, and he had gotten a nose job and trimmed his Adam's apple,' Thompson writes.

Thompson decided to keep Jenner's gender dysphoria a secret until her sons were old enough to 'to be able to deal with their father's true self' - a secret she kept for almost 30 years.

She wanted them to learn forgiveness, kindness, tolerance and compassion, as well as 'showing incredible acceptance, understanding, and forgiveness toward Bruce and others'.

But Jenner did not even attempt to see the couple's sons for several years.

There were few of those 'Hallmark memories', special father-and son moments' depicted on sappy greeting cards.

And the two boys wondered why their father didn't visit or even communicate with them.

Now Thompson states she can breathe easier knowing Jenner - now Caitlyn - is fulfilling her dream.

'That takes tremendous courage. For that I commend him,' she writes. 'Bruce has already gone through the fire, suffered unfathomable discomfort and pain, been held prisoner in his own flesh.

'It is certainly not our place to judge him or others who may feel trapped, ostracized, or alone.'

Thompson married David Foster in 1991 and divorced him in 2005. She appeared in a short-lived reality show, Princes of Malibu that focused on Foster's desire to improve the lives of her two sons and herself.

She returned to songwriting and has collaborated on several award-winning movie tracks.