Jane Fonda also confessed that in this chapter of her life, she was "the happiest I've ever been."
Jane Fonda is proving time and time again that age is just a number. At 85 years old, she says she's living her best life. As she grew older, she learned to live life more authentically by being true to herself. The Oscar winner also values female friendships more than ever now. She also reflected a lot about love and marriage over the years, admitting "Marriage is f***ing hard!" to PEOPLE. While the star is single now and grateful for her past relationships and the lessons she's learned, she admitted, "My life would be very different if I'd noticed red flags."
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After three marriages she learned that "nobody is perfect," she said. "And you have to decide: Can I live with this? Can we work with each other on this or is this a deal-breaker? Force yourself to notice if there are any red flags. What kind of relationship do they have with their mother? Is alcohol a problem? Is gambling a problem?"
The environmental activist has had her share of battles more recently having gone through chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma last year and is now in remission. "There's been tragedy and hard things in my life. But I've never succumbed to them. I've been resilient all my life," the Klute star shared with PEOPLE.
She also confessed that in this chapter of her life, she was "the happiest I've ever been." While people often view getting older as a worrying thing, Fonda disagrees. A lot of wisdom comes with age. "A bad thing happens, and you think, 'Well, that's happened before, and I'm fine. I'll get over it.' You know what's important. I spent a lot of time like a canoe with no paddle being carried in the current. As I got older, I learned I'm going to put an oar in the water and steer," she said.
In a May 2022 interview with Glamour, the actress noted that she felt younger at 84 than she felt at 20. She revealed that she's very curious and that has a huge impact on staying young. “Curious means you’re going to ask people a lot of questions, it means you’re going to read a lot of books, it means that in every situation you’re in, you're going to want to find the positive. For older people, if you stay curious, you will also stay young for a long time. I’m younger now than I was when I was 20.”
The Book Club star admitted it had taken her some time to understand a young body is "very forgiving." She added, “So it took me a while to realize that. I abused my body a lot when I was younger. But as you get older, if you drink too much one night or not get enough sleep, you’re at half-mast the next day and you don’t like the feeling and that’s a motivation to take better care of yourself.”
The actress loves spending time in nature and tries to get in as much sleep as possible as part of self-care. "When you get older, you realize that staying healthy is joyful and critical because age isn’t so much chronology. You can be very old at 84, which is my age, but you can also be very young. My dad died seven years younger than I am now, and he seemed so old because he was sick,” she shared.
References:
https://people.com/movies/jane-fonda-past-relationships-red-flags-exclusive/
https://www.glamour.com/story/jane-fonda-cover-story
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by JC Olivera
