Jane Fonda dazzled at the 79th Cannes Film Festival opening ceremony on Tuesday, making a striking public appearance just six days after the death of her ex-husband, Ted Turner.
The 88-year-old Oscar winner, who was married to the CNN founder from 1991 to 2001, had earlier taken to social media to share a moving tribute following his death at the age of 87 on May 6. Remembering him as 'deeply romantic and swashbuckling', she praised his 'brilliant mind' and 'vulnerability' while reflecting on their complex decade-long marriage. A cause of death was not disclosed, though Turner had previously battled the neurodegenerative condition Lewy body dementia.
Despite the personal loss, Fonda arrived at the Palais des Festivals looking every inch the screen legend, flashing her trademark megawatt smile as she stepped onto the red carpet. Dressed in a floor-length black sequined gown, the Oscar winner embodied Old Hollywood glamour, effortlessly showing younger starlets how it's done.
She shared the red carpet with fellow Hollywood icon Dame Joan Collins, who looked sensational in a white gown paired with a diamond necklace and black gloves. Later, inside the event, she joined Demi Moore on stage, with the two Tinseltown legends embracing warmly before posing for the shutterbugs.
Fonda's glamorous appearance comes after her heartfelt tribute to Turner, where she wrote in part, 'MY IMMEDIATE THOUGHTS ABOUT TED. 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. He had a big life, a brilliant mind and a soaring sense of humor. 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,' she continued, '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 accompanied the tribute with a sweet photo of the pair embracing in a scene from her 2018 documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts.
Fonda and Turner were both each other's third spouses when they wed in 1991. Turner is survived by his five children from his first two marriages. He never remarried after Fonda filed for divorce in April 2001. Fonda attended an event in honor of a charity she and Turner cofounded while together in November. 'Ted's not here, but he is here in my heart, and I know he is here in a lot of our hearts,' she said at the time.
Nicknamed the Mouth of the South for his outspokenness, Turner built a media empire that spanned several cable and satellite sports stations. For decades, he also owned the Atlanta Braves. Turner founded CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel, in 1980. He was named Time's Man of the Year eleven years later for the station's live coverage of current events.
CNN Worldwide CEO Mark Thompson acknowledged his death in a statement. 'He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN,' Thompson wrote of Turner. 'Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.' Thompson further touted the TNT founder as an 'intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgment.'
Turner officially resigned from Turner Broadcasting System - which includes CNN - in 2006. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in November 1938, he took over a faltering family billboard business after his father's suicide before launching his television career with purchases of several radio stations and a struggling Atlanta station in 1970. Within ten years, Turner managed to turn the channel around. He used the profits to help launch CNN, which quickly gained traction in the United States and later internationally.
The launch came as viewers were shifting from broadcast to cable, with CNN subsequently surfacing as a key source of news during the Persian Gulf War in the early 90s. The channel's success inspired the creation of several other 24-hour news channels since, including Fox News. Turner's television empire extended beyond CNN, however, with TBS and TNT, Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network among his other creations.
Turner also attempted to acquire CBS in the 80s but failed. He also owned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for a time, before selling off the storied studio for a fraction of what he paid to keep the rights to large portions of its film catalog. The shrewd business move helped launch both TNT and Turner Classic Movies, while also allowing Turner to curate content for a then-growing TBS. Films like Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz filled out time slots, as did syndicated programs like The Andy Griffith Show.
The deals continued - and grew in scope - in the 1990s, when Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner in 1996, making Turner vice chairman of a newly formed entertainment powerhouse. In 2001, Time Warner merged with America Online in a $165 billion deal that was billed as the biggest merger in corporate history. The merger, however, failed within a decade, largely due to the fall of AOL, which used an inflated share price for the deal during the height of its success. Turner, the biggest shareholder, lost billions. Then, in his mid-60s and semi-retired, Turner lost roughly $8 billion as a result, he admitted at the time. His net worth, as of Wednesday, was estimated to be $2.8 billion, according to Forbes. The advertising business he inherited from his late father was worth $1 million.
Turner remained Time Warner's vice chairman until 2003 and a board member until 2006. His 50-year career is widely seen as groundbreaking. David Zaslav, the CEO of Turner asset Warner Bros. Discovery, hailed Turner as 'a visionary, a trailblazer, and a foundational force behind many of the brands that are central to Warner Bros. Discovery' in his own statement. '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,' said Zaslav.
Turner revealed to CBS in 2018 that he was battling Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder that he played down as 'a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer's.' 'It's similar to that, but not nearly as bad,' Turner told then-CBS Sunday Morning host Ted Koppel. 'Tired. Exhausted. That's the main symptoms. And forgetfulness,' he said.
Donald Trump paid Turner respects on Wednesday as well, with a post to Truth Social. The President, after panning CNN's current leadership, called the tycoon 'one of the Greats of Broadcast History'. Trump also hailed him as 'a friend.' 'Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!'
Turner's philanthropic efforts included the Goodwill Games, the Better World Society, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (in 2001) and the Turner Foundation. In a 2010 pledge, he credited his philosophy on 'giving back' to his late father, whom he said 'was also philanthropic with his own small resources. Not only did he make contributions to causes that he cared about, he also supported the tuition of two African-American students at his alma mater, Millsaps College, in the late 1950s. It made a big impression on me to see someone as hard-charging as my father take the time to quietly help out two young people like this.' 'I'm particularly thankful for my father's advice to set goals so high that they can't possibly be achieved during a lifetime and to give help where help is needed most,' he added.
In his later years, Turner was an active practitioner of yoga and was known to wander his immense Montana ranch on horseback. It remains unclear when he received his dementia diagnosis. The disease also affected actor Robin Williams before his death in 2014.
