Jane Fonda paid tribute to her 'deeply romantic and swashbuckling' ex-husband Ted Turner following his death aged 87 on Wednesday. The iconic actress, 88, who was married to Turner from 1991 to 2001, shared a poignant social media post after the billionaire CNN founder's passing was confirmed by the cable network he founded.
Fonda's Heartfelt Tribute
She wrote: '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. 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.'
'He also taught me more than any other person or school classes, mostly about nature and wildlife, hunting and fishing (hunters and fishermen who follow the law are the best environmentalists), but also about business and strategy. Ted was supremely strategic. It was likely innate, but he studied the Classics in college, knew about the Peloponnesian War inside and out and the strategies used by Alexander the Great and even Genghis Khan. And sailing big boats as he did further honed those strategic talents which he then brought into his businesses to much success. He could see around corners for sure.'
'Next to Katharine Hepburn, Ted was the most competitive person I have ever met and that was fascinating to witness. Whether it was who’d made the most ski runs at the end of the day, to acres of land owned (stewarded is the more fitting word for his relationship to land), who had the most billions, how many countries he’d made love to his prior lover in and could I match that, it was challenging. Ted was challenging, but I’ve always been up for a challenge, and with Ted it was almost always worth it.'
'As our friend, Ron Olson, said, “Ted was a great teacher, often by example. He challenged us to think big (he once asked me to draft a resolution for the UN and the US Congress to ban all nuclear weapons; I did) and act small (for the twenty years since meeting Ted, I too, pick up trash on my walks).”'
'I loved Ted with all my heart. I see him in heaven now with all the wildlife he helped bring back from extinction – the black-footed ferrets, the prairie dogs, Big Horned sheep, Mexican Gray Wolf, the Yellowstone wolf pack, bison, the red-cockaded woodpecker and so many more, they’re all gathered at the pearly gates applauding and thanking him for saving their species.'
'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.'
'Rest in Peace, dearest Ted. You are loved and you will be remembered.'
Turner's Media Empire
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. A cause was not given, but Turner was known to have had Lewy body dementia. 'He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN,' Thompson wrote. '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.
Early Life and Career
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in November 1938, Turner 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 1990s. 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, with TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, and Cartoon Network among his other creations. Turner also attempted to acquire CBS in the 1980s 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 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.
Legacy and Philanthropy
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. 'That inspiration keeps me energized and eager to keep working hard every day on giving back and making the world a better place for generations to come.'
Survivors and Later Years
Turner is survived by his five children from his first two marriages. Fonda, 88, was his third wife. The pair were wed for ten years before Fonda filed for divorce in April 2001. Fonda - after also marrying three times - has since called him her 'favorite ex-husband.' Turner never remarried. 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. 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.
