Jane talks about how her bipolar mother affected her
Veteran actor Jane Fonda has said her mother’s suicide had a huge impact on her.
In the documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, the star shared her experience about growing up with a mother who was bipolar and how she learned to understand and forgive her.
“If you have a parent who is not capable of showing up, not capable of reflecting you back through eyes of love, it has a big impact on your sense of self. As a child, you always think it was your fault… Because the child can’t blame the adult, because they depend on the adult for survival. It takes a long time to get over the guilt,” Fonda told People magazine.
Frances Ford Seymour married Henry Fonda in 1936 and they had two children, Jane and Peter. In 1950, when Jane was 12 and her mother was 42, she took her own life by slitting her throat during her time at a mental institution.
The actor’s father had told her and her bother that their mother died due to a heart attack. Fonda only found out the truth by reading about it in a film magazine.
“When I wrote my memoir (My Life So Far), I dedicated it to my mother because I knew that if I did… I would be forced to really try to figure her out. I never knew her because she suffered from bipolarity,” she said.
If you have a parent who is not capable of of showing and reflecting you back through eyes of love, it has a big impact on your sense of self. JANE FONDA ACTOR