The Kardashians save their reaction to Bruce Jenner's transition for E! special

On Monday morning, E! announced that it will air "Keeping Up With the Kardashians: About Bruce" on May 17 and 18. The two-part special, first airing in the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" regular time slot on Sunday, "will take an earnest look at the family's struggle to process their own feelings as they work through hearing from Bruce directly about finally living life as the person he's always known himself to be," the network said.

E! promises that we'll hear from Jenner's ex-wife, Kris Jenner, and their daughters, Kendall and Kylie; along with stepdaughters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe. (Stepson Rob, as usual, will not appear.) On Monday, E! gave NBC's "Today" show — the channels share Comcast as a parent company — an exclusive look at Kris Jenner's reaction while talking with Kim Kardashian during the special.

"He has to deal with this for the rest of his entire life of waking up and feeling like, 'Whoa! This isn't my body. This doesn't feel comfortable,'" Kim Kardashian tells her mom. "That's the only way I can kind of imagine it. And you really have to, like, let go."

READ: US Olympic hero Bruce Jenner comes out as transgender

Tears stream down Kris Jenner's face: "I have these memories of this life, and I feel sometimes like it didn't exist," she says. That was it — though "Today" will air more clips from the special on Tuesday morning, likely before the 8 a.m. EDT hour.

As we know from Bruce Jenner's interview, Kris Jenner knew when she met Bruce Jenner in the late 1980s that he took female hormones and liked wearing women's clothes. But Bruce Jenner said he eventually stopped taking the hormones and also downplayed his gender confusion. When Kris Jenner would see him in a dress, as Bruce Jenner tells it, she would simply ask "OK, are you gonna change now?"

Bruce Jenner also said that Kim Kardashian has been, by far, the most accepting, and she's the easiest to talk to about his transition. Kourtney Kardashian worried about how her young kids would react, while Khloe Kardashian — who lost her father when she was little and recently went through a rough divorce — has had the most difficulty digesting the news. However, even though they didn't participate in the special, the Kardashians were all extremely supportive on Twitter after it aired on Friday, calling Bruce their "hero." Plus, E! said, the Kardashians want to be an inspiration to other people who might have similar struggles.