Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Jane Fonda, 87, Says She Once Expected to Die by 30 on Michelle Obama’s Podcast

She credits a deliberate late-life focus on living without regrets rooted in a difficult youth.

Overview

  • Speaking on The Look, a special series of Michelle Obama’s IMO podcast, Fonda said she believed she would die before 30 from “drugs and loneliness.”
  • She described an unhappy youth and referenced losing her mother, Frances Ford Seymour, at age 12 as a formative trauma.
  • Fonda said she has never feared getting older and added that she is not afraid of dying.
  • Turning 60 prompted her to treat later life as a “final act,” prioritize forgiveness, and live in a way that avoids regrets after seeing her father, Henry Fonda, die with them.
  • Approaching 88, she said she feels centered, complete, and happily single, and she emphasized staying visible and hireable as an activist, following recognition such as her 2025 SAG Lifetime Achievement Award.