Jane Fonda’s Love Life: A Look at Her 3 Marriages—And Why She’s Happily Single Now
Learn who she called 'My favorite ex-husband'
Jane Fonda is more than just an actress. Born into Hollywood royalty (she’s the daughter of actor Henry Fonda), the star of classic movies like Barbarella, Klute, Coming Home, The China Syndrome and 9 to 5 went on to be known as a sex symbol, activist, aerobics innovator and all-around cultural icon. After more than 60 years in the A-list (complete with an Oscar win for Klute and Coming Home), Fonda still fascinates, and her personal life is almost as talked-about as her professional accomplishments
Fonda had three high-profile marriages, and has spoken candidly about all of them. Here’s a look back at her illustrious love life.
Jane Fonda and Roger Vadim: A ’60s film director/muse duo
Early in her career, the Book Club: The Next Chapter star had a fling with legendary ladies’ man Warren Beatty. She then met French director Roger Vadim, who had previously been married to Brigitte Bardot and had a relationship with Catherine Deneuve, on the set of his 1964 film Circle of Love. Fonda and Vadim married in 1965, and their daughter Vanessa, who went on to become a filmmaker, writer and environmental activist, was born in 1968.
Fonda and Vadim continued to work together during their marriage, and she starred in his 1966 film The Game Is Over. In 1968, she played the title character in the gloriously campy sci-fi Barbarella, and it became not just their most famous collaboration, but one of the defining movies of her career. They collaborated again that same year in his segment of the anthology film Spirits of the Dead and divorced in 1973.
The On Golden Pond actress called working with her first husband “very sexy,” saying, “There was a lushness and a sensuality about his sensibilities. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a little bit less toward the end when our marriage was falling apart and he was drinking a lot.” Ultimately, she recalled, “He had tremendous charm but we were very different,” and as she became increasingly politically aware, Fonda revealed, “I was a different person. I knew I had to leave Vadim and go back to America to become an organizer.”
As her marriage was ending, Fonda had an affair with Donald Sutherland, her costar in the 1971 film Klute. After his death in 2024, she called him, “a brilliant actor and a complex man who shared quite a few adventures with me.”
Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden: A politically conscious pair
In 1973, the same year she divorced Vadim, the 80 for Brady star married left-wing political activist Tom Hayden and gave birth to their son, Troy Garity, now an actor. In 1982, Fonda and Hayden unofficially adopted Mary Williams, a teen daughter of Black Panthers. Williams published The Lost Daughter: A Memoir, a book about her unconventional upbringing, in 2013.
Hayden was a major influence on Fonda, and she said, “I learned all the things that I consider the most valuable from Tom.” After 17 years of marriage, Fonda and Hayden divorced in 1990. They remained friendly after they broke up, and after his passing in 2016, she said, “I was able to see with even more clarity than when he and I were together what an extraordinary life of dedication he lived and what a lasting impact he had on countless lives.”
Before her divorce was made official, Fonda dated Italian soccer player and soap opera star Lorenzo Caccialanza, and she was briefly rumored to be seeing Rob Lowe.
Jane Fonda and Ted Turner: A ’90s power couple
Following her divorce from Hayden, the Our Souls at Night star surprised her fans and garnered much media attention for marrying Ted Turner, the billionaire media mogul and philanthropist who founded CNN, TCM and other TV channels. Turner first confessed he was interested in Fonda to none other than former President Jimmy Carter, and as one of the most powerful men in the country, he was easily able to ask her on a date, but it took a few months before she fell for him, and they married in 1991.
Fonda and Turner divorced in 2001. After a decade of marriage, she felt like he was holding her back, and told People, “He was sexy. He was brilliant. He had two million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay . . . 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.’”
While Turner cheated on Fonda early in their marriage and their union didn’t last, Fonda still has kind words for him. She called him “outrageous and hysterically funny,” and said, “I would never love anyone like I love him.” She’s even sassily referred to him as “My favorite ex-husband”—high praise, indeed!
Jane Fonda’s current love life
In 2007, Fonda dated businessman Lynden Gillis. She began a relationship with music producer Richard Perry in 2009, saying, “The only thing I have never known is true intimacy with a man. I absolutely wanted to discover that before dying. It has happened with Richard. I feel totally secure with him.” They broke up amicably in 2017.
Since breaking up with Perry, Fonda has been happily single. In 2023, she told Vanity Fair, “I certainly don’t want to get married again. I can get much more done when I’m on my own,” and she’s quipped, “If I was to sleep with somebody, it would have to be someone very young. I mean, like in their 20s” and “I’m very grateful that I don’t have to get naked in front of anybody again ever, even in candlelight.”
Fonda, whose legendary personal life was covered in the 2018 documentary Jane Fonda in Five Acts, also shared that, “Up until my sixties, I was to an extent, defined by the men in my life,” and it wasn’t until this time that she was able to find joy and liberation in singlehood. Today, she’s able to look back fondly on her exes while admitting, “Marriage is f–king hard!” and we can’t help but love her humor and honesty about being single in her 80s.
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