When Troy Garity was 12 years old, his mother, Jane Fonda, welcomed 14-year-old Mary Williams into their home. Garity's newly adopted African-American sister seemed to fit in seamlessly -- and Garity says he never thought twice about Williams' race or place within the family.
No formal adoption papers were drawn up, and on Williams's mother's blessing, she lived with Fonda for the rest of her adolescence and into young adulthood.
Fonda welcomed her second child Troy Garity in 1973 with her then-husband Tom Hayden, a famed anti-war activist who died in 2016. Fonda adopted her third child Mary Williams in the 1980s after Williams attended Laurel Springs Children's Camp, a summer camp for kids that was founded by Fonda and Hayden.
Despite the breakups, Fonda has remained open about her past loves, particularly expressing admiration for Ted Turner as her favorite ex-husband and acknowledging Richard Perry as her best lover.
Jane didn't have any kids with her third husband, Ted Turner. She announced in December her cancer was in remission, and called it the “best birthday present ever” ahead of turning 85 that month.
Oprah's Next Chapter: Meet Jane Fonda's "Lost" Daughter, Mary Williams
Did Jane Fonda ever give birth to a child?
Fonda welcomed her first child, Vanessa Vadim, with then-husband Roger Vadim on Sept. 28, 1968, in Paris, France. Fonda and the French film director separated when Vanessa was just a toddler, and she grew up with her mother in California — though she did spend summers and holidays in France.
Fonda, who has three children, 55-year-old Mary Williams, 54-year-old Vanessa Vadim, and a 49-year-old son Troy Garity, told the host, “I was not the kind of mother that I wished that I had been to my children. I have great, great children—talented, smart.
Her father, an alcoholic, drowned at age 51 when he stumbled into a swimming pool at a sanitarium, according to Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman by Patricia Bosworth. Ann Clare Brokaw, her half-sister by her birth father, died in an auto accident at age 19.
Jane Seymour Fonda was born in New York, New York, on December 21, 1937 to actor Henry Fonda (1905-1982) and socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw (1908-1950). She has one brother, Peter Fonda (1940- ).
The words Fonda used in his will concerning his decision not to leave any of his estate to his children Peter and Jane were: “My decision is not in any sense a measure of my deep affection for them.” He then noted that both children were financially independent, but his third child and current wife “are dependent on me ...
Jane Fonda was married three times. Her ex-husbands are Roger Vadim (married from 1968 until 1973), Tom Hayden (married from 1973 until 1990) and Ted Turner (married from 1991 until 2001). Since her third divorce in 2001, Fonda has not walked down the aisle again.
“I was not the kind of mother that I wished that I had been to my children,” said Fonda. “I have great, great children — talented, smart. And I just didn't know how to do it.” “I've studied parenting, and I know what it's supposed to be now.
Jane Fonda's Adopted Daughter Reconnects with Her Birth Family. At 14, Mary Williams moved from the poverty-scathed streets of East Oakland to Jane Fonda's hacienda in Santa Monica. Decades later, Williams returns home to find out if blood really is thicker than water.
Her visit lasted two weeks and included visits to sites that had been bombed by the United States, a meeting with prisoners of war, and a visit to a military instillation. In the United States, Fonda's visit angered Americans who saw it as an act of treason.
One of Fonda's last roles was Clarence Earl Gideon in a television movie called Gideon's Trumpet. Fonda made his last movie, On Golden Pond, for which he won an Oscar, in 1981. Fonda died the next year of heart disease. He was 77.
Jane Fonda's gray hair is here to stay. In a new interview with Ellen Degeneres, the Grace and Frankie star opened up about her decision to embrace her natural color at 83—and she's feeling totally liberated. “I tell you, I'm so happy I let it go gray,” Fonda told Degeneres.
Things for their family changed in 1950 when Frances, who was struggling with her mental health, took her own life by slitting her throat while at a nearby mental institution. A then-10-year-old Peter and 12-year-old Jane were told by Henry that their mother had suffered a heart attack while in the hospital.
Fonda died at his Los Angeles home on August 12, 1982, from heart disease. Fonda's wife, Shirlee, his daughter Jane, and his son Peter were at his side that day. He suffered from prostate cancer, but this did not directly cause his death and was noted only as a concurrent ailment on his death certificate.
Fonda died from respiratory failure caused by lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles on August 16, 2019, at the age of 79. Following Fonda's death, his older sister Jane Fonda made the following statement: "I am very sad. He was my sweet-hearted baby younger brother, the talker of the family.
Although the couple divorced in 2001, Fonda continues to live in Atlanta and to raise money for the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP), an organization that she founded in 1995 with a grant from the Turner Foundation.
Fonda was born in New York City in 1937, the daughter of Henry Fonda and Frances Seymour Fonda. She attended the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, and Vassar College. In her late teens, Fonda studied with renowned acting coach Lee Strasberg and became a member of the Actors Studio in New York.
She and her father Henry Fonda are the only father-daughter couple to receive Oscars for leading roles. Married Ted Turner on her birthday in 1991. Had hip and knee replacements. Unrelated to her workout regimen, it is a genetic condition.
