Star Fonda reveals history of sex abuse

ACTRESS Jane Fonda has revealed she is a rape survivor and suffered sexual abuse as a child.

The two-time Oscar winner said she was also fired once because she refused to have sex with her boss. Fonda, 79, made the revelations in an interview with Academy Award-winning actress Brie Larson.

She told The Edit magazine: “To show you the extent to which a patriarchy takes a toll on females, 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. I know young girls who’ve been raped and didn’t even know it was rape. They think, ‘It must have been because I said no the wrong way’.

“One of the great things the women’s movement has done is to make us realise that (rape and abuse is) not our fault.”

Barbarella star Fonda also spoke about her regrets as a mother to three children – Vanessa, Troy and Mary.

She said: “I regret that I wasn’t a better parent. I didn’t know how to do it. But you can learn, so I studied how to be a parent. It’s never too late. I am trying to make up for what I didn’t know before. When I die, I want my family to be around me. I want them to love me and I have to earn that.”

Fonda, who won best actress Oscars for her roles in Klute and Coming Home in the 1970s, became an activist at the age of 31 to oppose the Vietnam War.