Jane Fonda's family has a history of mental health challenges, and on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson, she opened up about navigating those challenges. "I have to work hard to not go down a rabbit hole," Jane admitted during their conversation, adding that she comes from a "long line" of people who have struggled with depression. "It's why activism is important and it's why working out is important," she said.
Jane, 86, also spoke about her mom, who died by suicide in 1950 when Jane was 12 years old.
Jane's mother, Frances Ford Seymour, was 42 when she died. At the time of her death, Jane didn't know what had happened to her mom, reported People. Her dad, actor Henry Fonda, told her that her mom died of a heart attack.
Though the actress and activist only learned about what actually happened to her mom by reading a magazine, according to People, she now speaks candidly about her mom's mental health.
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In conversation with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson, Jane explained that her mom died by suicide and had lived with bipolar disorder. She added that the mental health challenges her mom faced were not surprising considering that her dad (Jane's maternal grandfather) was an alcoholic with his own serious mental health challenges.
"It was bad," Jane said when describing her maternal grandfather. "I think he was cruel to the whole family, there were five children, but [my mom] was sexually abused."
Jane added that her maternal grandfather was "paranoid" and he "would lock everything up and board up the windows."
"That's how they lived, and the only person allowed in was the piano tuner, and he was the one that abused my mother when she was 7," Jane said on the podcast.
She said that she was also abused at that age and that it's "interesting how things repeat."
"The shadow of early child abuse, it's generational," Jane said. "It casts a shadow over the daughter, the granddaughter — I've studied it," she explained.
Ted asked Jane how her "self-esteem is so intact" in spite of these traumatic experiences, but she assured him that "it's not."
She thinks it's "all about resilience," which she describes as "one of the most interesting things in the world."
Resilient people, she believes, "know when support is there and they can take it in." People who lack resilience, she said, can't do the same, and they struggle to get back on their feet when faced with hardship.
"My brother was lacking in resilience and I'm not," she said of her brother, the late actor Peter Fonda. "I don't know why."
In 2018, Jane spoke to People about how she's able to have empathy for her mother. "As a child, you always think it was your fault," she told the outlet. But as an adult, she started learning more about her mother and her perspective changed.
"If you can come to answers, which I was able to do, you end up being able to say, 'It had nothing to do with me,'" she said at the time. "It wasn’t that I wasn’t lovable. They had issues. And the minute you know that, you can feel tremendous empathy for them. And you can forgive."
Note: If you or any of your loved ones are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can always reach out to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling 988. They are available 24/7 by phone or online chat.
