Tragic Details Of Jane Fonda's Three Children

The following article contains references to drug and alcohol misuse, child abuse, and sexual assault.

Oscar-winning actor, philanthropist, political activist, and daughter of the famed Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda has led quite a life. From Fonda's complicated love life to her controversial opposition to the Vietnam War, life hasn't always been easy for the star. Sadly, much the same can be said for her children.

Vanessa Vadim was born in 1968 to Fonda and her first husband Roger Vadim; Troy Garity, born in 1973 to Fonda and her second husband Tom Hayden; and Mary Luana "Lulu" Williams, born in 1967 and adopted by Fonda and Hayden in the 1980s. While Fonda's children have certainly experienced more privilege than most, calling the "Klute" actor "mom" came with its disadvantages, too. In 2000, Fonda told People, "The few things I regret in my life are not the controversy and the activism. But not having put enough time into mothering, wiving, [and] taking care of the inner life." She was distant at times, often leaving her children without a mother figure to lean on.

Vanessa, Troy, and Mary each encountered adversity to varying degrees. From the men that would come in and out of their lives to their strained relationships with their mom and difficulty in their personal lives as adults, these are the tragic details of Jane Fonda's three kids.

Jane Fonda had already starred in a handful of films by 1963, but it was when she moved to the City of Light that she stepped out from father Henry Fonda's shadow. She captured the hearts of Paris with her film "Joy House" and subsequently met film director Roger Vadim, who was 10 years her senior, had been married twice before, and already had two children. They fell in love quickly, marrying in 1965 and welcoming daughter Vanessa Vadim a few years later.

However, the truth about Fonda's first marriage was far from what you'd read in a fairy tale. In speaking with People in May 2023, Fonda shared, "[Roger] had tremendous charm but we were very different. ... My life would be very different if I'd noticed red flags." Roger drank to excess, had a serious gambling addiction, and was unfaithful in their marriage, often bringing women home for threesomes that Fonda was less than enthusiastic about.

"After six years, I had begun to see a faint outline of me without him," she wrote in her 2011 memoir "The Private Life of a Public Woman" (via Vanity Fair). Fonda distanced herself from both her husband and young daughter for a time before getting divorced in 1973. The two went on to share custody of Vanessa.

Around the time Jane Fonda had Vanessa Vadim, Mary Luana Williams was a 1-year-old child living in poverty in East Oakland, California. Her parents were members of the revolutionary organization, the Black Panthers, with her father Randolph Williams holding the title of a captain in the group. Mary wouldn't move in with Fonda for another 15 years, becoming the actor's informally adopted daughter.

During her early years, Mary endured a lot of hardship. When she was just 3 years old, Randolph led the police on a dangerous high speed chase and was ultimately locked up at San Quentin. The prison was about 30 miles from their home in the Bay Area, and the family initially kept in touch. "At first, my mother took me and my five siblings on long bus rides to visit him," Mary wrote in a 2013 article for Oprah.com.

According to a December 1971 issue of The Black Panther, a newspaper published by and for members of the organization, Mary's mother was advised by prison administration that she could no longer visit her husband in jail due to her "conduct." As Mary wrote, "After a few months the trips ended, as did our relationship with our father."

Shortly after her divorce from Roger Vadim, Jane Fonda married politician Tom Hayden in 1973. They had each been outspoken about the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War beforehand, and their shared passion for activism brought them close. Together, Fonda and Hayden formed the Indochina Peace Campaign, an anti-war organization, leading demonstrations and lobbying Congress to stop funding the bloodshed.

Previously, Fonda's visit to Vietnam sparked controversy. She was considered a traitor, propagandist, and communist, and she wound up with the nickname "Hanoi Jane." There was a great deal of political tension at this time, so when the actor and politician welcomed their only child together, Troy, they were concerned about his surname. "When I was born, there was still a lot of anger over my parents' involvement in Vietnam," Garity said during a May 1998 interview with People. "They thought it would be better if I grew up with my own name."

The couple decided to give their son the last name of his paternal grandmother. Fortunately, the couple managed to put things in a positive light, as Hayden told the Los Angeles Times in September 1998: "[The name Garity was] mainly a sign to him that he's not a Hayden and he's not a Fonda, he's an independent being."

After Mary Luana Williams' father was incarcerated, her family left the Black Panthers and although her mom worked tirelessly, she still struggled to make ends meet. While the family of six were without much privilege at the time, there were still good times. In her article for Oprah.com, Williams fondly recalled, "We often went to the drive-in theater, stopped at all-you-can-eat restaurants, and then snuggled up in her king-size bed to watch The Twilight Zone or The Benny Hill Show." However, everything changed when her mom injured herself and could no longer work. "[She] morphed into someone I did not recognize," Williams explained, saying her mother went on government assistance and withdrew dramatically.

"She sat alone on the couch in our living room for hours crying, drinking, and listening to blues albums," Williams added. She and her siblings were physically assaulted over small instances that previously would have warranted a simple reprimand, and beatings and lashings became commonplace. In addition to the physical abuse, Williams added that her mother stopped taking interest in the children's schooling and wouldn't even take them to the doctor if they fell ill.

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

The contrast between Vanessa Vadim and Mary Luana Williams' upbringings is stark, but the sisters each experienced difficulty growing up. The truth is, Jane Fonda experienced postpartum depression after having Vadim. The actor wrote about the emotional turmoil she experienced during this time in her memoir "The Private Life of a Public Woman" (via Vanity Fair).

"I just felt that I had failed — that nothing was turning out the way it was supposed to," she explained. "Not the birth, not the nursing, not my feelings for my child or (it seemed to me) hers for me." Postpartum conditions were hardly recognized at the time, so Fonda dealt with it the best she could, leaving Vadim in the care of a nanny. The "Barbarella" star herself was raised by a governess after her mother died, so this way of parenting made sense to her.

As her father told People in October 1989, Vadim struggled as Fonda's daughter, even after she'd grown up. She joined a drama club in college but ended up quitting. "Any child would have trouble growing up in the shadow of such a strong image. ... She said, 'I'll never be as good as mom,'" he remarked.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

While Mary Luana Williams tried to take care of herself as best she could despite the chaos of her home life, she tragically could not avoid certain dangers. She endured sexual harassment and assault from a young age, and her mother was completely unaware of the predators that lurked around her. Detailing the unwelcome advances in her Oprah.com article, Williams wrote, "I guarded my innocence. ... Yet like a farmer tending her fields, I accepted the fact that I would lose bits and pieces to pests and vermin."

She described a teacher who forced her to touch him inappropriately and her friend's father who groped her. Sadly, Williams' situation didn't improve. When she was just 14 years old, a theater director twice her age raped her. The perpetrator coerced her to come back repeatedly with threats of violence, and the assaults occurred several times. "My mother didn't notice that I came home with a black eye and busted lip," Williams told The Times in May 2013.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Mary Luana Williams' circumstances began to change when she was 11 years old. Her home life was still in disarray, so when the opportunity to attend a summer camp, she couldn't wait to get away. The camp was started by Jane Fonda and her then-husband Tom Hayden. While many of the children attending came from privilege, like Angelina Jolie, the famous couple had ties to Williams' family through their support of the Black Panthers.

"Until I attended Laurel Springs Children's Camp ... I had not known I was poor," Williams wrote in her 2013 Oprah.com piece. In an attempt to fit in, she decided she would tell her fellow campers very little about herself. Williams returned to the summer camp several years in a row, eventually meeting Fonda herself. Williams opened up to the star about what was going on at home, as one of her sisters had become addicted to drugs, another had run off, and her mother was still drinking to excess.

Fonda offered Williams a place to stay if she could keep her grades up. "I thought, 'If my birth mother didn't want me, how could this woman, who is not genetically related to me, want me?'" she told The Times in 2013. But Fonda did, and when Williams turned 16, she joined the Hollywood starlet's family.

Going through a divorce is difficult enough, but when there's a kid involved, things become much more complicated. Jane Fonda's marriage to Troy Garity's father, Tom Hayden, was her longest-lasting one yet at 17 years. They got hitched in 1973, the same year their only son together was born, and from early on, Fonda and Hayden split parenting duties to accommodate their busy schedules. Things finally settled when their son was about 10, but in 1990, when Garity was a teenager, the famous couple split.

During a 2014 episode of "Death, Sex & Money," Fonda acknowledged she had something of a breakdown after her second divorce. "It wasn't even that it was that good a marriage, but sometimes a divorce or a crisis can pull the scab off a very, very, very early wound," she shared. This couldn't have been easy on Garity, who witnessed his mother going through the heartbreak. Fonda struggled to eat, speak, or even move during this time. "It was all the cliches," the "Coming Home" star expressed. "My heart weighed 20 pounds."

In October 1989, Jane Fonda's eldest child was a senior at Brown University and hadn't demonstrated any serious issues thus far — somewhat of a rarity among children of celebrities. In fact, Vanessa Vadim seemed to be excelling in life and had even adopted her mother's interest in social activism. However, the morning after she attended the premiere for Fonda's latest movie "Old Gringo," she was arrested in Manhattan with her friend Thomas.

According to a story published by People at the time, the two were in an area where drugs were frequently sold. Thomas had heroin on him when he was searched, and while Vadim initially wasn't in any trouble, she changed the cops' minds when she reportedly shouted, "If you're going to arrest him, you have to arrest me!" Supposedly, Fonda's daughter told the police that they did indeed purchase the drugs, but that it was only because they were doing a "school project," much to the cops' disbelief.

Although she was later released without bail, Vadim was facing several charges, including loitering, disorderly conduct, and obstructing an arrest. which would have resulted in up to six months in jail. "She said spending a night in jail was nothing compared to her misgivings about the worry she probably caused us," Vadim's father told the outlet. Fortunately for the family, the charges against her were ultimately dropped a couple weeks later.

It's clear that the "Nine to Five" star's romantic life was a whirlwind, and her career often kept her away from home. This unfortunately resulted in Jane Fonda having a strained relationship with her kids. On the bright side, the actor is pretty self-aware today and has taken time to reflect on her shortcomings.

While speaking to Harper's Bazaar in March 2021, Fonda expressed that seeing her son Troy become a father got her thinking about her own parenting. "Watching my son be a parent, I think, 'God, I just wish I had done that,'" she said, adding, "I was too wrapped up in me."

Fonda's activism became the priority in her life at the time, and while she lives with few regrets, she does wish she'd done more for her kids. "I was too wrapped up in becoming an activist," she admitted to Harper's Bazaar. During an interview with Chris Wallace on CNN in February 2023, the Hollywood icon further detailed, "I was not the kind of mother that I wished that I had been to my children," Fonda said, going on to boast about how amazing Vanessa, Troy, and Mary are. "I just didn't know how to do it," she explained. She's since learned more about what great parenting looks like, and because she can't turn back the clock, the activist is making an effort where she can. "I'm trying to show up now," Fonda added.

Unfortunately, Vanessa Vadim might've picked up a thing or two about love from her parents. Her first marriage didn't stand the test of time, and like her famous mother and father who also tied the knot with artistic types, she got divorced. Vadim's relationship with Matt Arnett first kicked off when Jane Fonda, who had been living in Atlanta, Georgia, at the time, met his father and they started a publishing company together. As Arnett worked for his father at this time, the arrangement led to him meeting, falling in love, and eventually marrying Vadim.

The two co-produced a documentary in 2002, and shortly after they welcomed a daughter. Despite later divorcing, they continued to co-parent. Jane Fonda's granddaughter, Viva, spent her childhood between her parents' homes in California and France and eventually fell into activism like her mother and grandmother.

In June 2010, Vadim got married again, this time to Paul Van Waggoner in beautiful St. Tropez, France. Of course, her movie star mother was in attendance and even shared her sweet sentiments on her personal blog. "I cried a lot seeing my daughter so happy," Fonda wrote, adding that, after the three-day event, she was "tired and relieved that it all went so well (with no effort on my part, I have to add)."

Jane Fonda's relationship with Tom Hayden may not have lasted, but Troy Garity always treasured him as a father. From his time as a political activist alongside the "Steelyard Blues" actor to his two-decade long career as a California state legislator, he worked tirelessly and undoubtedly made his son proud. Tragically, a year and a half after suffering a stroke, Hayden died at the hospital from heart complications at the age of 76.

In an October 2016 Facebook post, Garity announced the news to his followers that his father had died. "We walked down many roads together, hand in hand until the end," he wrote in the tribute post alongside a sweet snap of Hayden and himself together. Garity went on to thank well wishers for their condolences, explaining that their kind words were helpful: "They revive memories, awake emotions and illuminate the beauty of friendship."