Jane Fonda's Parenting Regret Is Heartbreakingly Relatable

Jane Fonda is reflecting on one of her biggest regrets: Parenting.

As mom to Vanessa Vadim, 54, Mary Luana Williams, 55, and Troy O'Donovan Garity, 49, "I was not the kind of mother that I wished that I had been to my children," Fonda said in an interview with CNN that aired Feb. 21. "I have great, great children—talented, smart. And I just didn't know how to do it."

But, through her advocacy work, the 85-year-old has learned better. "I've studied parenting, and I know what it's supposed to be now," she confessed. "I didn't know then. So I'm trying to show up now."

Rectifying her past mistakes is a priority as she enters her last stage of life.

"It's so important to try to clear everything up before you go," the Grace and Frankie star shared. "What I'm really scared of is getting to the end of life with a lot of regrets when there's no time to do anything about it. It's one reason I'm trying to get it all done before I come to the end."

And as she told host Chris Wallace, she doesn't have any fear when it comes to death.

"I'm not scared of dying," Fonda, a survivor, said. "It's an adventure. I don't want to go—I still have a lot to do—but if I discovered I had cancer again, and there was nothing I could do, I'd be okay with it."

 Back in September, she shared she had been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, announcing in December that she was in remission. Previously, in 2018, she had a cancerous growth removed from her lip as well as a tumor removed in 2010 follow a breast cancer diagnosis.

 

If nothing else, she views her health battles as teaching moments.

"Cancer is a teacher and I'm paying attention to the lessons it holds for me," she wrote on Instagram last Fall. "One thing it's shown me already is the importance of community. Of growing and deepening one's community so that we are not alone. And the cancer, along with my age—almost 85—definitely teaches the importance of adapting to new realities."

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