Jane Fonda talks giving up acting when she wed Ted Turner (2024)

Jane Fonda famously chucked her prominent acting career when she wed billionaire Ted Turner in 1991, shocking fans.

And now the 85-year-old star has shared that she did so because she truly believed that her union with the CNN founder would last 'forever.'

But it didn't. After 10 years, they divorced, sending her back to Hollywood where she found success on Grace And Frankie with Lily Tomlin. Her next project reunites her with Tomlin on the highly anticipated 80 For Brady starring football great Tom Brady.

Turner is now 84-years-old and battling Lewy Body Dementia.

While speaking to Entertainment Tonight she shared, '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.'

She also noted, '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 continued.

'So I feel very lucky,' noted the star of such classics as Klute and Barefoot in the Park.

In her 2018 documentaryJane Fonda in Five Acts she said that she was very attracted to Turner.

'He was sexy. He was brilliant. He had two million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay,' she shared.

'But there was this angel on my shoulder… it was hard to even hear her voice, [saying], "If you stay, you will die without ever becoming who you can be. You will not really be authentic."'

Before Turner she was wed to director Roger Vadim and politician Tom Hayden.

Her next film, 80 For Brady, also stars Rita Moreno and Sally Field.

It is inspired by the true story of four best friends who take a trip to the 2017 Super Bowl LI to see their hero Tom Brady play.

In the past, Fonda told People she was thrilled with Brady calling him 'sweet.' The film opensFebruary 3, 2023.

A year agoFonda said she was not interested in getting married again.

The actress joked a 'successful marriage' is the only thing she is yet to achieve in her lifetime.

However, Jane also admitted she doesn't 'want to' mark off the achievement, as she has no intention of walking down the aisle for the fourth time.

When asked by Page Six if there's anything she hasn't yet accomplished that she still wants to do, she said: 'I'll tell you something that I haven't achieved, which is a successful marriage.

'But the second part of your question is, "Do you want to?" I don't want to.

'See I live by myself. I don't have any guy who doesn't want a woman who is willing to be angry and who doesn't want a woman who is willing to be angry and stand up.

'I'm not threatening anybody. I can watch whatever I want on TV. So I don't ever want to be married again. But it's something I wish I'd been better at.'

She was wed to Vadimfrom 1965 until 1973; to Hayden from 1973 until 1990; and to Turner from 1991 until 2001.Jane has also romancedmusic producer Richard Perry.

Meanwhile, the star recently said she doesn't get intimate anymore as she's 'had so much of it' and quipped things have 'frozen over' for her.

Asked if she's still having 'crazy sex', she revealed: 'No, zero. I don't have time. I'm old and I've had so much of it, I don't need it right now because I'm too busy. My favorite ex-husband Ted Turner, he always said, if you wait too long, it froze over. I think he's right! I couldn't have sex again even if I wanted to.'

And Jane also insisted she 'didn't know' how to make a marriage work.

She said: 'Those of us who had parents who stayed married their whole lives have a much easier job of making relationships work. My dad was married five times. I didn't know how to make a marriage work.

'Maybe I was afraid of having a marriage work. I don't know ... It's beautiful when it works, when people grow together and are together for an entire lifetime. How wonderful. I wish that I could have experienced that.

'I'm missing something that would make a marriage work. I don't spend a lot of time regretting the fact I didn't have one long marriage. I had three very nice, interesting marriages and I'm grateful for that.'