Jane Fonda paid tribute to her late ex-husband Ted Turner on Wednesday after the cable TV media mogul died at the age of 87.
“He swept into my life, a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate and I’ve never been the same,” she shared on Instagram. “He needed me. No one had ever let me know they needed me, and this wasn’t your average human being that needed me, this was the creator of CNN, and Turner Classic Movies, who had won the America’s Cup as the world’s greatest sailor. He had a big life, a brilliant mind and a soaring sense of humor.”
“He could also take care of me. That was new as well. To be needed and cared for simultaneously is transformative. Ted Turner helped me believe in myself. He gave me confidence. I think I did the same for him, but that’s what women are raised to do. Men like Ted aren’t supposed to express need and vulnerability. That was Ted’s greatest strength, I believe,” Fonda continued. “He also taught me more than any other person or school classes, mostly about nature and wildlife, hunting and fishing (hunters and fishermen who follow the law are the best environmentalists), but also about business and strategy. Ted was supremely strategic. It was likely innate, but he studied the Classics in college.”
The former pair was married from 1991 to 2001, coinciding with her brief retirement from making Hollywood movies.
“Next to Katharine Hepburn, Ted was the most competitive person I have ever met and that was fascinating to witness,” Fonda further noted. “Whether it was who’d made the most ski runs at the end of the day, to acres of land owned (stewarded is the more fitting word for his relationship to land), who had the most billions, how many countries he’d made love to his prior lover in and could I match that, it was challenging. Ted was challenging, but I’ve always been up for a challenge, and with Ted it was almost always worth it.”
“As our friend, Ron Olson, said, ‘Ted was a great teacher, often by example. He challenged us to think big (he once asked me to draft a resolution for the UN and the U.S. Congress to ban all nuclear weapons; I did) and act small (for the twenty years since meeting Ted, I too, pick up trash on my walks),’” she added. “I loved Ted with all my heart. I see him in heaven now with all the wildlife he helped bring back from extinction – the black footed ferrets, the prairie dogs, Big Horned sheep, Mexican Gray Wolf, the Yellowstone wolf pack, bison, the red cockaded woodpecker and so many more, they’re all gathered at the pearly gates applauding and thanking him for saving their species.”
“Five children survive him, five talented, complex kids who I had the privilege of becoming stepmother to. I had four stepmothers growing up and I know how important stepmothers can be, so we all did our best to build an extended, rag tag family, and I love them to this day. If it was complicated to be married to him, think how complicated it was being his child. And they are all doing fine,” Fonda concluded. “Rest in Peace, dearest Ted. You are loved and you will be remembered.”
Turner is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; he was previously married to Julia Nye (1960-64) and Jane Smith (1965-88) prior to his relationship with Fonda.