Hollywood superstar Jane Fonda has admitted she never expected to make it to 30, and instead thought she would die "from drugs and loneliness".
Fonda, 87, opened up about her unhappy childhood during the latest episode of Michelle Obama's podcast, The Look.
During the episode, entitled Ageing & Wisdom: A Conversation on No Regrets, Fonda was asked what worried her about ageing when she was younger when she made the heartbreaking confession.
Watch the video above.
"I didn't think I'd live past 30," Fonda said.
"I was sure I was going to die. My mother had died when I was 12. My youth was not especially happy.
"I'm not 'addictive', but I thought I was going to die from drugs and loneliness, so the fact that I am almost 88 is astonishing to me.
"And what is even more astonishing is that I am better now. I would not go back for anything.
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"I feel more settled, more whole, more complete. I am very happy."
Fonda grew up in the public eye as the daughter of Hollywood actor Henry Fonda, and his second wife, Frances Ford Seymour Fonda.
The Canadian-American socialite was the mother of Fonda's two children Jane and fellow actor Peter Fonda.
The couple wed in 1931. They were married 11 years before Fonda asked for a divorce in 1950.
Three months later, Frances died by suicide at a clinic in New York where she was being treated for bipolar disorder.
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Elsewhere in the podcast, Fonda said that while she was not afraid of dying, she was afraid "of dying with a lot of regrets".
"I watched my dad die with a lot of regrets," she said.
"That was an important realisation for me, because if you don't want to die with regrets, then you have to live the last part of your life in such a way that there won't be any regrets."
Fonda had a famously complicated relationship with her father, who died in 1982, but said in 2023 that she made peace with him before his death.
"Before he died, I was able to tell him that I loved him and that I forgave him for, you know, whatever didn't happen," she said during an appearance on Who's Talking to Chris Wallace.
"And I hope that he would forgive me for not being a better daughter. I got to say that to him.
"He didn't say anything. But he wept.
"I had never seen that before. I'd never seen my father break down and weep. And... it was powerful."
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Title: 'I was sure I was going to die': Why Jane Fonda never thought she would make it to 30
Sourced From: celebrity.nine.com.au/latest/jane-fonda-didnt-think-she-would-live-to-30/cee9373c-66b6-4610-8a40-4c5b19e74cb2
Published Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2025 23:11:00 GMT
