Jane Fonda talks her 'double image' in relationships with men
Jane Fonda is getting personal about her identity in the May 2019 issue of British Vogue.
The 81-year-old actress shared that she was shaped by personal tragedy that affected her early in life, as her mother died when she was just 12 years old.
"My mother killed herself, so I saw women as kind of being on the losing side," she told the outlet. "I was so conditioned to identify with men in every possible way."
"When I was married to Roger Vadim, one day one of his friends said, 'God, Jane, you're just like us' -- and I took it as a compliment!" she added, referencing her first husband.
Fonda shares that she struggled with her sense of self for much of her life, until very recently.
"I would say up until my seventies, I spent my life like a double image, like a double exposure," she told the publication. "As an adolescent, in order to fit in, I made sure no one -- especially boys or men -- could see who I really was; that I could get really angry, that I could not be pretty, that I could be tough."
"I went through life not whole," she continued. "And when I left Ted [Turner, her third husband], I could feel myself moving back into myself. That is the main thing about the third act as I'm living it. I am no longer a double image."
Fonda shared that she feels she loses her sense of self when she is with a man.
"I had several serious relationships after [Ted], but I can't…" she told British Vogue. "That is my failing. I realize I can never overcome it. That when I'm with a man, I give up myself."
The star said she's embracing life more and more as she grows older. "I didn't think I'd ever ever live this long -- or feel that I'm whole or getting whole. I feel very intentional about realizing that it's up to me how this last part of my life goes," she shared.
She also revealed to the publication that she has health concerns she pays close attention to.
"I've had a lot of cancer. I was a sun-worshiper," she said. "When I have a day off, I frequently go to my skin doctor and have things cut off me by a surgeon." Her osteoporosis is another disease she suffers from.
"The fact that I hurt a lot -- my body hurts -- is a surprise to me, and it's not because of all that working out," she told the outlet. "It's genetic. My father had it, my brother had it. Your cartilage disappears and then it's bone on bone, and then 'ow'. But we live in a time where you can just get a new one."
