A cancer diagnosis is a scary reality to be faced with. Actor and activist Jane Fonda recently found herself in this predicament. She revealed in September 2022 that she had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
In December 2022, just before her 85th birthday, she announced that her cancer was in remission. Jane opened up to Entertainment Tonight about her difficult treatments and how this made her come to terms with her own mortality. The road to remission was not an easy one.
“Chemo hit me hard,” Jane revealed. "It was the first time that I thought, 'OK, this is what most people experience.' Because the kind of chemo that I was taking wasn't so bad in the beginning,” she added. Jane’s chemo got increasingly harder as treatments went on.
Jane’s difficult treatments gave her time to contemplate her mortality, which she believes is healthy. "I think about death a lot," she said. "I have for the last 30 years. I think that's a healthy thing to do. It's hard to live right if you don't think about death. It's a part of life."
"Other cultures aren't so afraid of thinking about death as we are. I spend a lot of time thinking about it and it's made my life a lot better," she went on to say. "And when you get a cancer diagnosis, you think about it even more and you want to be sure you get the things done that you want to get done, so when the time comes you won't have a lot of regrets."
Jane acknowledges her privilege to be diagnosed with a very treatable cancer and her access to high-quality health care. In her original announcement, she said, “This is a very treatable cancer. 80% of people survive, so I feel very lucky.”
She updated fans at the beginning of her treatment. She said that their "love and support mean the world to me." She also said that she was feeling "stronger than I have in years" following her first round of chemo. She did not know what was to come at that time.
Jane announced her remission in an Instagram post. "Last week I was told by my oncologist that my cancer is in remission and I can discontinue chemo. I am feeling so blessed, so fortunate. I thank all of you who prayed and sent good thoughts my way. I am confident that it played a role in the good news," she wrote.
Although chemo was not easy, Jane was able to accomplish a lot while undergoing treatments. She is currently promoting her new film 80 for Brady. She stars alongside Sally Field, Rita Moreno, and Lily Tomlin to tell the story of four friends who take an epic road trip to see Tom Brady play in the 2017 Super Bowl.
Jane also continued her activist work. "I'm especially happy because while my first 4 chemo treatments were rather easy for me, only a few days of being tired, the last chemo session was rough and lasted 2 weeks making it hard to accomplish much of anything. The effects wore off just as I went to D.C. for the first live, in-person Fire Drill Fridays rally," she said.
Jane also hopes to hang out with Tom Brady more now that she is through with cancer treatments. "I actually have his number and the number of his manager, but I don't want to take advantage. But he's going to be doing all the promotional [stuff], so we're going to be seeing each other again," she said.
