Ted Turner and Jane Fonda in 2017. Rick Diamond/Getty Images for GAACP Jane Fonda is remembering her ex-husband and CNN founder, Ted Turner, following the news of his death, which was announced on Wednesday.
Fonda took to social media to share a tribute, reflecting on her “immediate thoughts” on Turner. “He swept into my life, a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate and I’ve never been the same. He needed me. No one had ever let me know they needed me, and this wasn’t your average human being that needed me, this was the creator of CNN, and Turner Classic Movies, who had won the America’s Cup as the world’s greatest sailor,” she wrote in the caption of her Wednesday Instagram post. “He had a big life, a brilliant mind and a soaring sense of humor.”
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She continued: “He could also take care of me. That was new as well. To be needed and cared for simultaneously is transformative. Ted Turner helped me believe in myself. He gave me confidence. I think I did the same for him, but that’s what women are raised to do. Men like Ted aren’t supposed to express need and vulnerability. That was Ted’s greatest strength, I believe.”
Fonda also described how much he taught her and how he was strategic and competitive.
“I loved Ted with all my heart. I see him in heaven now with all the wildlife he helped bring back from extinction,” she continued before sharing an update on his children. “Five children survive him, five talented, complex kids who I had the privilege of becoming stepmother to. I had four stepmothers growing up and I know how important stepmothers can be, so we all did our best to build an extended, rag tag family, and I love them to this day. If it was complicated to be married to him, think how complicated it was being his child. And they are all doing fine.” (Read the full tribute below).
The two-time Oscar winner was married to Turner for a decade from 1991 to 2001. After they split, the pair remained close friends, with Fonda previously calling him her “favorite ex-husband.” Fonda has been married three times, and Turner was her third husband.
Fonda’s comment came just a couple of hours after it was reported that Turner had died at age 87. According to a statement from the family released by Turner Enterprises, he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. In recent years, Turner suffered from Lewy body dementia.
Turner launched CNN in 1980 and helped build the cable business through satellite transmission. He went on to launch TNT, TCM and Cartoon Network and then sold his media empire to Time Warner in 1995 for $6.5 billion. He later focused on environmental and political causes.
David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, who is also the current owner of the properties Turner built, wrote in part in a memo to WBD staff Wednesday: “Ted was a visionary, a trailblazer and a foundational force behind many of the brands that are central to Warner Bros. Discovery today. Ted’s entrepreneurial spirit, creative ambition and willingness to take risks changed the media industry forever. He believed deeply in the power of ideas, in doing things differently and in building platforms that could inform, inspire and connect people around the world. That belief inspired generations of leaders, myself included. He did not just disrupt media. He transformed it.”
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