The two-time Oscar-winning Hollywood star Jane Fonda couldn’t help but get emotional as she discussed her ex-husband Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, during a charity event last week.
Fonda Gets Emotional
On November 13, Fonda gave a speech at the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential’s (GCAPP) 30th annual EmPower Party and gala. Fonda, 87, co-founded this charity with Turner, 86, during their marriage, which lasted from 1991 until 2001. The stated goal of this organization is to “improve the overall health and well-being of young people” in Georgia, per the charity’s website.
During her speech, Fonda claimed that the charity’s three decades of success “never would have happened if it wasn’t for Ted.”
“It was a very challenging time in Georgia. Had I not been with Ted, this was something, had he not stood by me with his love and support, we never would have survived,” Fonda said as she became visibly emotional. “Ted’s not here, but he is here in my heart and I know he is here in a lot of our hearts.”
Turner was Fonda’s third husband. She was previously married to the French filmmaker Roger Vadim from 1965 until 1973. They are parents to daughter Vanessa, 57. Fonda went on to marry the activist Tom Hayden in 1973. She welcomed a son Troy Garity, 52, with him before they divorced in 1990. She then married Turner one year later, staying with him for a decade before they divorced.
Fonda Praises Turner
Though it’s been over twenty years since Fonda and Turner divorced, they have remained close friends. Indeed, in the 2018 documentary Jane Fonda in Five Acts, Fonda was quick to praise Turner.
“[Turner] was sexy. He was brilliant. He had two million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay,” Fonda said. “But there was this angel on my shoulder… it was hard to even hear her voice, [saying], ‘If you stay, you will not really be authentic.'”
In 2023, Fonda described Turner as “outrageous and hysterically funny” in an interview with People Magazine.
“You have to understand nobody is perfect,” Fonda said of relationships at the time. “And you have to decide: Can I live with this? Can we work with each other on this, or is this a deal-breaker?”
Fonda quit acting when she married Turner. She’s been open about the fact that she thought she’d never return to the entertainment industry.
“I left for 15 years, when I married Ted Turner, and I did not think I was gonna come back, ’cause when I married him, I thought it’d be forever,” Fonda told Entertainment Tonight in 2023.
“But I came back, and frankly, if anybody told me that at 85, I’d be doing this kind of movie, I would have not believed them,” she added, referring to her movie 80 For Brady. “So I feel very lucky.”
Turner’s Health Struggles
As for Turner, he’s currently suffering from Lewy Body Dementia.
“It’s a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer’s. It’s similar to that, but not nearly as bad. Alzheimer’s is fatal. Thank goodness I don’t have that,” Turner said in 2018. “But, I also have got, let’s — the one that’s — I can’t remember the name of it. Dementia. I can’t remember what my disease is.”
Watch Turner talk more about this in the video below.
Neither Fonda nor Turner ever remarried after their divorce. Judging by Fonda’s latest comments, it appears that she still has feelings for her ex-husband. Now that they are each in their final years, it’ll certainly be interesting to see if Fonda and Turner ever reunite!