Jane Fonda dominated the entertainment industry with her versatile performances. She bagged two Academy Awards and an AFI Life Achievement Award in the course of her 63-year career. However, despite having an impressive run in Hollywood, Fonda’s private life hasn’t been always great as her childhood was marred with sexual abuse and her marital life was a mess.
In a 2017 interview with People, the 85-year-old reflected on her absence in her children’s lives during their childhood. “I regret that I wasn’t a better parent,” Fonda explained. “I didn’t know how to do it. But you can learn, so I studied how to be a parent. It’s never too late. I am trying to make up for what I didn’t know before. When I die, I want my family to be around me. I want them to love and I have to earn that. I’m still working at it.”
Jane Fonda got married thrice
Fonda welcomed her biological daughter, Vanessa Vadim, with her first husband, Roger Vadim, in September 1968. Although the pair’s marriage only lasted from 1965 to 1973, Jane went on to find love again with her second husband, Tom Hayden.
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The lovebirds tied the knot in 1973 and Fonda gave birth to her son, Troy Garity some months after. The couple went on to adopt another child, Mary Luana Williams in 1982. However, the duo divorced in 1990 even though it looked like they were going to be together forever.
A year later, Fonda married media mogul Ted Turner, but the union didn’t last long either as they called it quits in 2001.
Vanessa Vadim
Vanessa is the first and only daughter Jane had with her first husband, Roger Vadim. She took after her father who is also a filmmaker. She’s best known for directing the 2002 short film The Quilts of Gee’s Bend and for working on her mom’s 2018 flick, Jane Fonda in Five Acts. In a 2019 interview, she revealed that her father inspired her to become a filmmaker. She noted that filming “always felt very natural” to her.
Asides from her career, Vanessa is also an ecological advice columnist for the Mother Nature Network, an online platform that promotes sustainability. She has two children with her longtime husband, Paul Van Waggoner.
Troy Garity
Troy seems to be the most famous of Fonda’s children. He’s an actor who has been nominated for a Golden Globe award for his role as Barry Winchell in the television movie Soldier’s Girl. He also starred in the 2002 comedy Barbershop and its 2016 sequel, The Next Cut. Troy was also featured in the 2015 HBO comedy series, Ballers, alongside A-list actor Dwayne Johnson.
The 49-year-old revealed in an interview with Behind the Velvet Rope in 2016 that being born by Jane Fonda has made his career growth easier for him but he always ensures to give his best to his work. “At the end of the day it’s really your work,” he admitted. “My parents instilled in me just a hard work ethic and that it’s a marathon and not a sprint.”
He got married to the love of his life, Simone Bent in 2007.
Mary Luana Williams
Mary Luana Williams who was born in October 1967 was unofficially adopted when Fonda was in her second marriage. She was already 14 years old when she joined the family and found a chance to live her dreams.
Williams explained in her memoir, The Lost Daughter, that Fonda gave her renewed hope when she decided to add her to the family. “I had given up on myself and my grades at school suffered, but Jane’s proposal renewed my interest in school,” she wrote. “She threw a lifeline and I grabbed it.”
The 55-year-old is a social activist and founder of the Lost Boys Foundation, an organization that works with young Sudanese refugees who have been displaced by the ravaging war in their country.