Jane Fonda didn’t start "becoming who she was supposed to be" until she reached her 60s.
The 80-year-old actress has claimed that until two decades ago, her life was "defined by the men" around her – including father Henry Fonda, and three husbands Roger Vadim, Tom Hayden, and Ted Turner – but when she finally started living for herself instead of aiming "to please", she was able to be the person she was "supposed to be".
She said: "Up until my sixties, I was to an extent, defined by the men in my life. I was brought up to please. I wanted my father to love me so I would turn myself into a pretzel to be what he wanted me to be, not necessarily what I already was. It took me getting into my sixties, and then I began to become who I was supposed to be all along."
Jane divorced her third husband Ted in 2001, and said that whilst she found the billionaire "sexy" and "brilliant", she knew she had to leave the marriage in order to "really be authentic" to who she is.
The ‘Grace and Frankie’ star – who has 49-year-old daughter Vanessa with first husband Roger, and 45-year-old son Troy with second spouse Tom, as well as adopted daughter Mary Luana, 50 – told Jess Cagle for People magazine’s ‘The Jess Cagle Interview’: "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.’"
Jane Fonda: I wasn’t myself until my 60s
