OK! ICONS JANE FONDA
Ok! CELEBRATES OSCAR-WINNING ACTRESS, POLITICAL ACTIVIST, FITNESS LEGEND AND FEMINIST JANE FONDA
When the Duchess of Sussex named her as one of her 15 trailblazing women, Jane Fonda became Vogue’s oldest ever official cover star, aged 81. From Oscar-winning actress to political activist, it’s only in her later years that Jane feels she has truly found her purpose, describing herself as a ‘late bloomer’. ‘I think I’m maybe just starting now to live up to my potential,’ she says. But after a glance at her remarkable life story, it’s a statement that’s hard to agree with.
Born on December 21 1937, Jane grew up in New York. After taking an interest in acting in her teens, she went on to land her film debut in 1960 comedy
Tall Story, aged 23. But Jane’s childhood was far from idyllic. As an adult, Jane explained that she had suffered at the hands of a child abuser. Her mother, who she later discovered had also suffered sexual abuse as a child, took her own life at 42, when Jane was just 12.
Jane’s early career saw her working in films, but in the ’60s it was her opposition to the Vietnam War, including a trip to Hanoi in 1972, which saw her name hit the headlines. ‘Prior to my becoming an anti-war activist, I had lived an eventful life, an interesting life, but a meaningless life. I was a pretty girl who made movies and was kind of hedonistic,’ she says. ‘When I decided to throw in my lot with the anti-war movement, everything shifted. The way I looked at the world, the people I was drawn to, what interested me – everything changed.’
Alongside her political interests, Jane continued to succeed in the film world too, winning two Oscars and two BAFTAS. But in 1982, she also established herself as the new queen of aerobics with her fitness video,
Jane Fonda’s Workout.
In 1991, after three decades in Hollywood, the actress announced her retirement, but returned to the big screen in 2005 in box office smash
Monster-in-law, alongside Jennifer Lopez. Reflecting on her renaissance,
she says: ‘Oh, I just feel damn lucky. I retired for 15 years. I left at 50 and came back at 65.’
The actress has also battled her fair share of health woes, having undergone two hip replacements and two knee replacements as a result of osteoporosis. She also underwent a mastectomy in 2016 and has battled multiple skin cancers.
In recent years, Jane’s activism has seen her become an avid supporter of the #Metoo movement, something, she says, which was partly spurred on by her own relationships. ‘I grew up in the ’50s and it took me a long time to apply feminism to my life. The men in my life were wonderful, but victims of a patriarchal belief system. I felt diminished. Eventually I decided I wasn’t going to give up who I was in order to please the man I was with,’ she explains.
Her first husband was French film director Roger Vadim, who she married in 1965 in Las Vegas. They welcomed daughter Vanessa three years later. In 1973, just three days after finalising her divorce from Vadim, she married activist Tom Hayden at her Los Angeles home. The couple’s son Troy was born that summer. In 1982, Jane and Tom later unofficially adopted teenager Mary Luana Williams. Tom and Jane divorced in 1990. In 1991 she married CNN founder Ted Turner and the union lasted ten years. She later dated record producer Richard Perry, before they split in 2017. Now thought to be single, she says: ‘I love men, I’m not done with men, but I’m done with marriage and dating.’
One of the many women to speak out against Harvey Weinstein, Jane has never shied away from using her voice to speak up for others too. Of men fired for sexual misconduct in the work place, she recently said: ‘Oh, poor top-paid executive who can’t get his job back. F*** it! Sweep the floor at Starbucks until you learn! If you can’t learn, you don’t belong in the boardroom. And there are plenty of women who do belong in the boardroom.’
She has also been open about her own experiences, explaining: ‘I’ve been raped, I’ve been sexually abused as a child and I’ve been fired because I wouldn’t sleep with my boss, and I always thought it was my fault, that I didn’t do or say the right thing... One of the great things the women’s movement has done is to make us realise that rape and abuse is not our fault. We were violated and it’s not right.’
Jane’s mission to change the world shows no sign of stopping. She recently used her 80th birthday celebrations to raise over a million pounds for a teen charity. And her secret to longevity? ‘If you want to make it to the long haul, you have to take care of yourself. I get more than eight hours sleep every night; I meditate twice a day for half an hour; I eat right; I work out.’