Tragic Details About Jane Fonda's Life

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This article includes discussion of suicide and eating disorders.

Jane Fonda has had more than her fair share of hardships over the years. When the Oscar winning actor reflected on some of the low points of her life in a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Fonda opined, "It's always nice to know you can survive – and more than survive, you can go on to thrive." The "Grace and Frankie" star also shared how all the challenges she had endured shaped her as a person, proclaiming, "It was the difficult things that could have broken me that went on to teach me the most — and that made me more empathetic and understanding of others." 

We witnessed a great example of this perspective during her February 2023 chat with CNN's Chris Wallace, when Fonda revealed that her many serious health problems had taken away her fear of death and left the actor and activist with a nagging desire to set things right in her life while she still could. Meanwhile, in a 2017 Net-a-Porter interview with fellow actor Brie Larson, the "Barbarella" star confessed that she felt terrible about not being the mother her three children needed because she simply had no clue what to do. 

In typical fashion, Fonda took action and started reading books that helped her to better understand parenting, and later implemented it all accordingly. The legendary star's ultimate wish was that her kids would want to be by her side on her deathbed, so Fonda worked hard to be worthy of their love. It's unsurprising that her biggest regret was about parenting because she had a complicated relationship with her own parents too.

A few months after Henry Fonda told Jane Fonda's mother, Frances Ford Seymour, that he wanted to end their marriage, she was admitted into a mental institution. During a 2015 appearance on "Oprah's Masterclass," Jane admitted that she wasn't aware that her mother had been institutionalized at the time. Although Seymour briefly returned for a home visit, her then-12-year-old daughter turned down the opportunity to talk to her. Sadly, about a month later, the actor's mother died by suicide.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the young teen was overwhelmed with guilt because she believed her mom may not have taken her own life had she spoken to her when she visited. To better understand Jane's complex feelings about the tragedy, we sat down for a chat with Dr. Kelly Vincent, licensed psychologist and the owner of Nourished Wellness Group. The expert professed that a child may be trying to fight against the fact that there are things they can't control by blaming themselves for such events. 

Dr. Vincent elaborated on how the deeply rooted guilt and shame from such tragic incidents could affect a person in adulthood, confirming, "It often leads to chronic self-criticism, feelings of unworthiness, perfectionism, and a heightened sense of responsibility for other people's emotions." In fact, Jane disclosed to People in 2018 that she was only able to overcome the guilt from Seymour's suicide after conducting a deep dive into her past and learning about her mental health issues. The knowledge set the "9 to 5" star free. "It wasn't that I wasn't lovable. They had issues," she said. "And the minute you know that, you can feel tremendous empathy for them. And you can forgive."

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

Elsewhere in her 2016 chat with The Guardian, Jane Fonda shared that although she held her father, Henry Fonda, in high regard, she could also admit that he was a complicated man who had trouble opening his heart up even to his closest loved ones. In fact, when the actor spoke to Oprah Winfrey in 2015, the Oscar winner revealed that she had only seen her father shed a tear twice in her life. The first time was when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died while the second was on his deathbed when Jane told him that she loved him and appreciated his efforts as a father. 

Tragically, Henry couldn't reciprocate her emotions even as he was dying, as his daughter recalled, "Sitting by my father's bedside as he was dying, he wouldn't say anything," (via YouTube). She continued, "Of course, I wished he would. I wanted him to tell me that he loved me, and I wanted to ask him questions." During a 2022 interview with Le Monde, the "Barbarella" star recalled how she walked on eggshells as a child because she didn't want to trigger Henry's temper, which Jane sadly described as "cold, shut-you-down, hard-to-come-back-from Protestant rages." 

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that Henry's work in "The Grapes of Wrath" and "12 Angry Men" inspired her to become an activist, as Jane proudly told The Guardian, even though he wasn't too pleased with her decision and initially found his daughter to be a "foolish, frivolous person." Fortunately, with time, Henry started taking pride in his daughter's activism and even gushed about her in an interview.

Jane Fonda opened up about her self-esteem issues in a 2016 LennyLetter essay, in which she detailed how her father, Henry Fonda, would often urge prospective stepmothers to advise her to shed a few pounds and wear longer clothing to hide her body. Additionally, one such woman ingrained the idea that the "Klute" star would only be able to find a romantic partner if her body conformed to a strict standard. Eventually, the emotional void inside Jane manifested into an eating disorder, a condition that three of her stepmothers notably also grappled with. 

During a February 2023 appearance on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, Jane discussed how it gravely impacted her life. "Your day becomes organized around getting food and then eating it, which requires that you're by yourself and that no one knows what you're doing," she explained. "It's a very lonely thing. And you're addicted. If you put any food in you, you want to get rid of it." 

The environmental activist's issues were exacerbated by the unfulfillment she felt in her career and the unshakeable belief that she had strayed too far from her core self. Jane even confessed that she didn't believe she would live to celebrate her 30th birthday. Meanwhile, in her LennyLetter essay, she wrote that her self-esteem issues led her to seek out romantic partners who wouldn't pay any real mind to her condition because they were caught up with their own problems. After years of trials and tribulations, the Oscar winner finally overcame her eating disorder.

If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

Jane Fonda has had a complicated love life, to say the least. Fonda's first marriage to Roger Vadim lasted about eight years and officially ended in 1973. According to Vanity Fair, the director, who wasn't faring well financially at the time, would frequently ask Fonda for money for vague work-related reasons. Initially, the "Barefoot in the Park" star refused to give in to his whims, but as time went by, she gradually lost her resolve. Later, Fonda learned that her first husband had a gambling problem and had used up a large portion of her mother's inheritance to fuel his addiction. Additionally, Vadim hadn't paid a dime of his taxes for years either. After discovering the extent of his debts, the Oscar winner got to work paying them off, and it took five long years for Vadim to be out of the woods. 

Unfortunately, Fonda didn't fare much better after walking down the aisle with Tom Hayden in 1973. During a 2018 New Yorker interview, Fonda revealed that she consistently downplayed her success while married to Hayden. The "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" star asserted that although she took great pride in all the positive changes her workout videos stirred, her second husband didn't share the same sentiment and believed they were incredibly self-serving. Likewise, in a chat with Dave Karger for his book, "50 Oscar Nights," Fonda sadly divulged how she dulled her shine: "I wanted to play down the Hollywood part of me, so I didn't have [the Oscars] on display anywhere." The actor confirmed to the New Yorker that their marriage ended after 17 years because "he fell in love with somebody."

In a 2024 TIME essay, Jane Fonda looked back on how she was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier in her life and had to undergo a full mastectomy and radiation sessions as part of her treatment. While speaking to British Vogue in 2019, the beloved star pointed out that she had to pick a dress with ruffles for the 2016 Golden Globes to conceal the bandages from her surgical procedure. Fonda also noted that she continued to have run-ins with the disease in the following years and often spent what little downtime she had in hospital having additional skin cancers surgically removed. It's safe to say that the "Book Club" star wasn't speaking figuratively either. In 2019, she told "BUILD Series" host Ricky Camilleri that she had to wear a bandage under her lip because she had recently had a cancerous growth surgically removed from the area. 

In September 2022, Fonda announced on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight the following year, the Oscar winner proudly disclosed that she went all-out for her 85th birthday after learning that her cancer had gone into remission just days prior. However, the actor also openly acknowledged that she struggled with her treatment. "Chemo hit me hard," she confirmed. "It was the first time that I thought, 'OK, this is what most people experience.' Because the kind of chemo that I was taking wasn't so bad in the beginning," but the environmental activist felt the effects with repeated sessions. Fonda's cancer diagnoses had also caused her to think about death and triggered her to tie up loose ends and minimize her life's regrets even more than she already had thus far.