Motherhood is one of the only jobs that there is no official training program for. You have to make it up as you go along, and this is not an easy feat. At times, you are going to fall short of the ideal, as Jane Fonda knows all too well. She appeared on the February 19 episode of CNN’s Who's Talking to Chris Wallace? and opened up to the host about her faults as a mom.
Jane admitted she was not always the best mother but also said that she is actively working to make up for it now. She loves her children and grandchildren dearly.
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"I was not the kind of mother that I wished that I had been to my children. I have great, great children — talented, smart. And I just didn't know how to do it," Jane revealed.
Jane sees her faults all too well and wants to make up for them. "I've studied parenting, and I know what it's supposed to be now. I didn't know then. So I'm trying to show up now," Jane continued.
Jane made similar comments in an interview with fellow actor Brie Larson. “I regret that I wasn’t a better 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 me and I have to earn that. I’m still working at it,” Jane said.
Jane is a mother of three. Jane shares daughter Vanessa Vadim with French filmmaker Roger Vadim. Vanessa, age 54, followed in her family’s footsteps and is a filmmaker. Her directorial debut came in 2002 with the documentary short The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.
Jane shares a son and daughter, Troy Garity and Mary Luana Williams, with her late second husband, Tom Hayden. Troy, 49, is an actor best known for his work on HBO’s Ballers and the role of Isaac in the Barbershop movies. In 2004, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Soldier’s Girl.
His sister Mary was adopted by Jane and Tom when she was 14 years old. “She helped me to become whole. I think I learned as much or more from [Mary] as she did from me. But on a psychological level, she helped complete me,” Jane revealed to Oprah. Mary now works as an activist instead of in Hollywood like her siblings.
One of the reasons Jane might have been a less-than-ideal mother is her own strained relationship with her father, Henry Fonda. The pair were able to reconcile before he passed, which was very important to Jane. They shared a powerful cathartic moment together.
"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. 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 I — it was, it was powerful,” Jane recalled.
