At 84, Jane Fonda is still inspiring women to embrace movement. Andrea Smith looks back on her colourful life

Outspoken, courageous, talented and determined, Jane Fonda has lived a life encompassing acting, activism and fitness.

She became one of the early pioneers of the modern fitness movement thanks to the 1982 home exercise VHS video, Jane Fonda's Workout. At 84, Jane is still a fitness icon and is partnering with H&M on its global Move campaign, which focuses on movement rather than sport.

As a tribute to the star, Woman’s Way takes a look back at her colourful life, career and personal life.

EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY

Jane was born in New York City in 1937 to actor Henry Fonda and his second wife, socialite Frances Ford Seymour.

Her father had a career that spanned more than 50 years. His stand-out roles include The Grapes of Wrath (1940), My Darling Clementine (1946) and 12 Angry Men (1957).

Jane’s younger brother Peter is best known for writing and starring in the 1969 road movie, Easy Rider.

Sadly, their mum Frances died through suicide on her 42nd birthday at a psychiatric hospital when Jane was 12 and Peter was 10. This occurred months after Henry asked her for a divorce after 13 years of marriage.

He went on to marry a woman 23 years his junior, and married twice more after that. Jane and Peter described him as being detached and emotionally distant as a father, who didn’t tolerate displays of emotion or weakness.

“Growing up with my father was not easy," Peter told The Virginian Pilot. "Jane and I didn't look forward to having dinner with him. He was quiet and didn't talk much and we felt he was judging us, and we didn't do much that was right. The dinner table was a scary place."

Although their relationship was complicated, the siblings were by their dad’s side when he succumbed to heart disease in 1982, aged 77. Prior to that, Jane and Henry both worked on the 1981 film, On Golden Pond, and became the first father-daughter duo to earn Oscar nominations.

While Jane didn't win, she accepted the best actor award on Henry’s behalf, five months before his death.

Jane and Peter had a good relationship and she described herself as “very sad” when he died of lung cancer in 2019 aged 79. “He was my sweet-hearted baby brother,” she said. “The talker of the family.”

CAREER

Jane's father wasn’t enthusiastic when it was suggested that his 15-year-old daughter play a minor role alongside him in a fundraising play in his hometown of Omaha. “I needn’t have worried at all - except for myself,” he said. “My daughter almost stole the show.”

Jane began working as a high-fashion model. She moved into acting when she met Lee Strasberg of the Actors’ Studio in New York, and he told her she had real talent.

The young woman made her debut on Broadway in 1960 in the play, There was a Little Girl, and was nominated for a Tony Award. She also made her screen debut in the romantic comedy, Tall Story.

Her talent soon led to the roles that made her name as a sex symbol - Cat Ballou (1965), Barefoot in the Park (1967) with Robert Redford and Barbarella (1968).

The first of her seven Oscar nominations came when she played Gloria Beatty in the 1969 drama They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, about a Depression-era dance marathon.

She didn’t win on that occasion, but brought home Oscars for her roles in the 1971 crime thriller Klute and 1976 romantic war drama, Coming Home. Other awards include an Emmy for The Dollmaker in 1984 and seven Golden Globes.

Jane was ranked as Hollywood's most bankable actress by the end of the 1970s, thanks to her roles in The China Syndrome (1979) and The Electric Horseman (1979) with Robert Redford. She won great acclaim for her role in the 1977 American Holocaust drama, Julia.

Jane also had huge success in 1980 with the much-loved 9 to 5, which co-starred Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. She reunited with Tomlin for the Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie (2015-2022) and won an Emmy for the series about two ageing women who form an unlikely friendship after their husbands reveal they’re in love.

She also reunited with Robert Redford for the 2017 romantic comedy,  Our Souls at Night.

ACTIVISM

Jane is a noted activist, which has gotten her into trouble on several occasions.

Protesting about the Vietnam War in the early 1970s led to her being nicknamed “Hanoi Jane,” and called her patriotism into question. Her father scorned her activism and stopped speaking to her at times.

In 1970, Jane formed the “Free Army Tour” with actor Donald Sutherland, with whom she had a three year-relationship. They toured military bases on the West Coast, urging pilots to stop bombing non-military targets, and appearing on radio shows criticising the US military’s policy.

A now-infamous photograph taken of Jane sitting on the gun turret of the Vietnamese Army’s anti-aircraft missile launcher in Hanoi caused a storm, as it looked like she was preparing to shoot down American planes.

She explained in her 2005 memoir My Life So Far, that she was led towards the gun and sat down “hardly even thinking about where I am sitting.” When the cameras flashed, the implication hit her and she pleaded, in vain, for the photos not to be published.

“It was my mistake, and I have paid and continue to pay a heavy price for it,” she said.

Jane spoke out as an LGBTQ+ ally long before it was popular to do so, and has been a longtime supporter of feminist causes. She was arrested in Washington, DC, in 2019 during a demonstration for action on climate change. This was her fifth time to be arrested - the first was in 1970.

She also regularly spoke out against Donald Trump, and described him as “much more dangerous” than Richard Nixon, who was president during her Vietnam protests.

“You can’t reason with him,” she said to Vanity Fair. “He has no sense of the institutions, laws, and values. He doesn’t understand history. He doesn’t care about anything other than himself and money.”

APPEARANCE

When she was a teenager, Jane overheard her father saying her legs were too heavy. "I went to bed and slept for two days, the only way I knew to escape those words that haunted me for the rest of my life," she wrote in her memoir.

She said that her father taught her that how she looked was all that mattered, and “unless you look perfect, you're not going to be loved.”

Although she became a model and graced the cover of Vogue in 1959, Jane didn't consider herself beautiful. “If my face had gone a beat the other way, I would be ugly,” she noted.

A profile written in Coronet magazine in 1960 claimed that Jane was “incessantly concerned” about her slender 117-pound weight, and described her as a “chronic reluctant dieter.”

Joshua Logan, the producer of Tall Story, recalled her becoming upset during filming as she wasn’t losing weight quickly enough. “She said she looked like a chipmunk with her cheeks full of nuts,” he said. “She lost so much weight that the cameraman objected and we had to force-feed her.”

In her memoir, Jane explained that she controlled her weight up to the age of 45 through anorexia and bulimia, diuretics and purging. “I think it was just a matter of deciding that I was either going to live or die,” she explained. “I went for the light. I went for living.”

Jane had breast implants, although they were later taken out, and several cosmetic surgeries. These included facelifts in her 40s and 70s, a chin lift and eye surgery to fix her eyes.

“I made sure that they kept my lines,” she said. “I didn’t want to lose my wrinkles; I just wanted to lose the bags under my eyes.”

Having changed her hair over the years, like women all over the world, Jane embraced grey hair during the pandemic.

MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN

Having lost her virginity at 18 to actor James Franciscus, Jane had a colourful love life. Her boyfriends included Warren Beatty and soccer player Lorenzo Caccialanza, and the first of her three marriages took place when she was 27 to the director of Barbarella, Roger Vadim.

Their daughter Vanessa was born in 1968, but the marriage ended after eight years. Vadim was a compulsive gambler who spent much of Jane’s inheritance from her mother and brought home other women so they could have threesomes.

She married activist Tom Hayden in 1973, and had their son Troy that same year. They also unofficially adopted an African-American teenager known as Lulu. Theis marriage ended in 1988 when Troy announced that he was in love with another woman.

Jane’s third husband was CNN founder Ted Turner, and they were married in 1992 in Florida. Alas, Turner cheated on Jane and they were divorced by 2001.

After being celibate for seven years, Jane had relationships with management consultant Lynden Gillis from 2007-8, and record producer Richard Perry from 2009 -2017,

In her memoir, she wondered if she had become whatever the man she was with wanted her to be.

“‘Sex kitten,' 'controversial activist,' 'ladylike wife on the arm of corporate mogul,'" she wrote.  “Was I just a chameleon, and if so, how was it that a seemingly strong woman could so thoroughly and repeatedly lose herself?"

In 2021, Jane told Harper's Bazaar that she didn’t want to be in a sexual relationship again, but had a particular fantasy. “The problem is that, like a man, I would want a younger man,” she said. “Isn’t that awful? It’s a thing about skin. I would want a younger man, and I’m too vain.”

FITNESS

With gyms mainly aimed at men, Jane created Jane Fonda's Workout in 1982 for women to have a quality workout in their homes.

The “Feel the burn” tape of Jane in her ballet-style leg warmers topped the sales charts, and she released more successful videos until 1995.

A total of 17 million videos were sold and a lesser-known fact was that Jane started her fitness business to fund her political activism and support her husband Tom Hayden's workers' rights grass-roots organisation.

Jane brought out more DVDS and online videos in recent years, focusing on women over 50. A home video clip in 2020 saw her doing leg lifts at age 82.

Her original videos have been remastered and released on DVD, and in 2018, Vogue magazine declared that “Jane Fonda’s 1982 workout routine is still the best exercise class out there.”

In the new H&M Move campaign, Jane swaps her leg warmers and leotard for a trendy black and grey monogrammed outfit - part of the retailer’s ‘movewear’ collection.

The activities featured include everyday movements such as hoovering, carrying groceries and running up stairs.

“I’ve spent a lot of my own life getting people to move and was naturally drawn to the mission of H&M Move to get the whole world moving,” says Jane. “To me, it’s not about sports or being the most athletic. It’s about giving your body the kind of movement it needs to stay healthy so it can take care of you.”

Follow us on Instagram