Jane Seymour is a mother of four kids and a stepmom to two children. She and her fourth husband separated after he cheated on her.
One of the perks of getting older is to be able to have a partner, a family, children, and grandchildren. That's how our civilization goes forward but the purpose of family is not so utilitarian. They also bring us love, joy, and warmth. Being able to play with our grandchildren is likely one of the most innocent and joyful things we can do. We get to spoil the little ones without the responsibility of having to raise them as we had with our own kids. For a change, we can be the good guys and lavish love on the little kids.
Jane Seymour, 69, is learning those perks of getting older. "I think playing with grandchildren keeps me young. They have endless energy and it’s so much fun. I also love to meditate," she told Closer Weekly.
Her career has spanned five decades, having started on the Broadway stage, where she debuted in 1980’s production of Amadeus, went on to feature in James Bond hit Live and Let Die, and continued to attain more fame with her six seasons as the title character of TV’s Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
The British-American actress has more accolades to her name, but she prefers the title of grandmom. "I swore I wasn’t going to be one of those people who can’t stop talking about her grandchildren," she added. "But it’s amazing. You get suckered in the minute the first grandchild comes along. It almost seems more magical than when you had your own children!" said the grandmom of six.
Seymour, who is divorced, has a stepdaughter and stepson apart from four kids of her own — Katherine, 39, Sean, 35, and twins John and Kristopher, 25. She was married to Michael Attenborough from 1971-73, Geoffrey Planner from 1977-78, David Flynn from 1981-92, and James Keach from 1993-2015. She had two kids to Flynn and the twins with Keach. She is also a stepmom to Jenni Flynn and Kalen Keach.
In a 2013 interview with the Guardian, Seymour said she is close with her stepchildren and doesn't even call them as her stepkids. "We're really close, including my two stepchildren, Jenni Flynn and Kalen Keach. But we don't use the word stepkids. We do not distinguish," she told the UK newspaper. "I'm very proud of all my children, and I spend a lot of time with them."
In 2019, the actress shared how she got a new lease on life after something terrible happened to her. She was in her mid-60s when Keach decided that their marriage was over. "I had a long marriage and never thought it was going to end," the 68-year-old said. Then her children told her about online dating. "I'm going, 'I what? I date? What? Are you crazy? How does this work?'” Seymour said. “And then my kids would say, 'Mom, there's this thing called Tinder.' And I'm like, 'No, that's not going to happen,'" she said, as per ABC.
However, much like her on-screen persona in the Kominsky Method, she ran into an old flame. She met her boyfriend and British film director David Green in 2014, and they have been together since then.
"Accidentally I ran into somebody I knew 38 years earlier who had been in a long marriage and his marriage ended," she said. "It wasn't his choice and my marriage ended, it wasn't my choice. And we randomly met accidentally 38 years later and realized we were free, and we've been together ever since. So I do not have to date," she said.
Her marriage with Keach, who directed her in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, ended because he cheated on her, she revealed. "Choices were made that I couldn’t live with," she told Daily Mail. "I thought we were going to be married for ever, but James made a choice that I wasn’t privy to. He found someone else. I felt horrible, devastated. I don’t do well with betrayal. If someone says: 'Things aren’t good, let’s separate,' it would be different. But I was never privy to that conversation. By the time I found out — entirely by accident — it had been going on for some time, so that was that. It was someone I knew, so that was very frightening," she added.
"I tried to figure something out, but I realized that the marriage wasn’t going to work. We are friends now and were always determined to be good parents, but it was devastating at the time," Seymour added.
Now, with Green by her side, she's enjoying being a grandparent and is continuing to work.
References:
https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/jane-seymour-playing-with-grandkids-keeps-her-young/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/20/jane-seymour-family-values-austenland
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/jane-seymour-finding-love-mid-60s-tinder-67344743
