Jane Fonda’s One Fantasy Involves a Younger Man: “I’m Too Vain”

Jane Fonda has always made headlines for her candor. Whether she is in the news for her role as a climate activist and being arrested for protesting, explaining the dangerous implications of fashion waste, or revealing her regrets with plastic surgery, the 83-year-old actress has not held back in recent years on being honest with the press.

In a cover story interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the actress and activist regaled the interviewer with stories of her golden days, from working with Katharine Hepburn to being asked by Robert Redford to direct, and talked about working with youth climate leaders. But when the conversation turned towards the concept of having regrets, Fonda revealed that the only thing she really laments about her life is its lack of intimacy. Still, though, she has “come to terms” with being single. “I don’t want to be in a relationship, a sexual relationship, again. I don’t have that desire,” she said.

This is, of course, not the first time in recent memory that the actress opened up so frankly about her sex life. Her latest on-screen projects, including Grace and Frankie and Book Club, tackle the intricacies of having sex as an older woman, and in 2018, Fonda said, “I’ve closed up shop down there,” insinuating that she was done with dating. However, she’s still a human being, and in Fonda’s fantasy world, there are some imaginary intimate moments. “Do I fantasize? Yes, here’s my fantasy. I’ll just put it out there,” she said. “That I meet a professor or a researcher, somebody in that line who is really capable of loving, of cherishing a woman, so that I could test myself and see if I could show up.”

She has a stipulation for turning this fantasy scenario into a real-life situation, though: she’d need to be involved with a younger man. “I think maybe now I could, but the problem is that, like a man, I would want a younger man,” she said. “Isn’t that awful? It’s a thing about skin. I would want a younger man, and I’m too vain.”

Fonda expounded upon the fantasy even further. “I’m very grateful that I don’t have to get naked in front of anybody again ever, even in candlelight,” she admitted. “And if I did, I mean in my fantasy, the man is younger than me, so that would make it even harder. I’m being perfectly honest. I wish that wasn’t true.”