JANE’S GAME ‘I am what I am’

THE ACTRESS REVEALS WHY SHE’S NEVER FELT MORE HERSELF

There aren’t too many topics Jane Fonda won’t discuss. Sex? Sure, let’s talk about it more. Plastic surgery? Of course – she’s had it and regrets it. 50 Shades of Grey? “It’s not very good, is it?”

From her three divorces, triumphs, activism and personal heartaches, no-one could ever accuse Jane Fonda of being boring – or not being brave.

A youthful 80, Jane is currently in the middle of a career resurgence, thanks to her critically lauded role in Netflix’s hit series Grace and Frankie and her latest film Book Club.

But as she gets older, Jane has managed to find herself too, after decades of being led, viewed and influenced by the lenses and personalities of her ex-husbands – despite her iconic stature.

In a remarkable new documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, the actress opens up on her struggles with eating disorders and insecurities, regrets about her skills as a mother and reveals why she’s “closed up shop” when it comes to romance.

However, she maintains feeling “better than I ever have” at 80, and says she’s determined to continue the reinvention she started years ago.

“Up until my sixties, I was, to an extent, defined by the men in my life,” she tells of her father, famed actor Henry Fonda and

three husbands, Roger Vadim, Tom Hayden and Ted Turner.

“I was brought up to please and I wanted my father to love me, so I would turn myself into a pretzel to be what he wanted me to be – not necessarily what I already was.”

This pattern continued in her marriages, she reveals, leading to their downfalls – and it was only when she found herself alone that she became the woman she was supposed to be all along.

Now, in her ninth decade, it’s all about her. She’s currently single – she broke up with her partner of eight years, music mogul Richard Perry (76), in 2017 when he developed Parkinson’s.

“He got very, very sick and I’m not a good caretaker. So now

I’m living on my own,” she says, adding, “I’ve closed up shop… men don’t ask me out!”

But that’s not to say the stunning blonde isn’t embracing her sexuality – in fact, she’s adamant more older women need to do the same.

“Sex in general is kind of a taboo,” she reckons.

“You don’t talk about it, you don’t really admit that it exists – particularly if you are old. ‘Ageism’ is the word. There’s this cult of youth and, as you get older, the idea that you’re still sexually active is disgusting to people!”

But these days, Jane says she has something better. “There’s nothing so important as women’s friendship. I think it’s way more important than sex.”

It’s those strong friendships − such as with Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton, her 9 to 5 co-stars − that have seen her through the most awful parts of her life.

And she’s experienced more than her fair share of awful, the most harrowing of which was the death of her mum, Frances Ford Seymour. Her mother, who suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder, took her own life when Jane was only 12 – she found out it was suicide from a movie magazine a year later. But she has since been able to find some closure and peace, despite the fact she never really knew her mother.

“If you can come to answers, as I was able to do, you end up being able to say, ‘This had nothing to do with me,’” she tells. “It wasn’t that I wasn’t lovable… the minute you know that, you can feel tremendous empathy and you can forgive.”

Jane has also managed to beat the bulimia that consumed her in her forties, though her struggles with body confidence began much earlier than that, with her father often remarking on her weight. It was her famed workout videos that helped

Jane finally conquer the disease.

But through it all, Jane only has one regret – not being a better mum to her three kids, Mary Williams (50), Vanessa Vadim (49) and Troy Garity (45).

“I felt like I was a bad mother,” she tells in the documentary.

“I’m trying to make up for what I didn’t know before. I want them to love me, so I have to earn that,” she says, confessing her relationship with her kids isn’t the best.

Oh, and there is, of course, the surgery, a topic that is raised every time Jane is interviewed.

Yes, she’s had it, she admits, but there’s a part of her that wishes she didn’t have to.

“I am glad that I look good for my age, but I’ve also had plastic surgery. I’m not going to lie about that. On one level, I hate the fact that I have had the need to alter myself physically to feel that I am okay. I wish I wasn’t like that. I love older faces. I love lived-in faces. I love Vanessa Redgrave’s face. I wish I was braver. But I am what I am.”

She continues, “Surgery and fitness bought me an extra 10 years. I retired for 15 years. I left at 50 and came back at 65. But at 65, I never thought I’d have a career and a hit TV show. I’m 80!

“I keep pinching myself… I didn’t think I would live this long!”