Jane Fonda: ‘Older women should feel fine about saying no more sex’

She declared herself done with dating earlier this month after her split from long-term partner Richard Perry last year. And now, during an appearance on British talk show Loose Women on Thursday, Jane Fonda says that older women shouldn’t feel like they have to continue having sex if it’s no longer of interest, just because it’s socially acceptable.

Appearing alongside Diane Keaton, 72, Candice Bergen, 72, and Mary Steenburgen, 65, the  80-year-old Grace and Frankie star told her hosts that “it’s important to say for our audience of a certain age that, there’s no reason you have to have sex”.

Speaking about their new film Book Club – in which the veteran actresses star as four 60-something friends who read saucy adult novel Fifty Shades of Grey and find their views of relationships changing as a result – Fonda insisted that it was fine to make the decision that you’ve hit the point where you’re no longer keen to date or have a relationship. t

“It should be a choice! If you decide to close up shop down there, that’s fine too,” she said.

Fonda admitted, though, that issues were rarely portrayed in films, adding: “You don’t particularly enjoy watching wrinkled lips kissing each other!”.

A lot of seniors find themselves single in their later years, and plenty no doubt relate to Fonda’s views, after she declared herself done with dating and permanently off the market just a few weeks ago.

At the premiere of her new film Book Club in May, Fonda was asked by Extra about her dating status. “I’m not dating anymore but I did up until a couple of years ago,” Fonda told Extra. “I’m 80,” she added. “I’ve closed up shop down there!”

Fonda’s last relationship with music producer Perry, 75, ended in January 2017. The actress was previously married to CNN founder Ted Turner for 10 years, until 2001. Fonda also married politician Tom Hayden in 1973, one year after divorcing film director Roger Vadim, who cast her in the classic sci-fi film Barbarella.

Her children are Vanessa Vadim (from her first marriage), Troy Garity (with her second husband) and Mary Luana Williams (who was unofficially adopted).

Book Club tells the story of four close friends whose lives are turned upside down after reading 50 Shades of Grey in their monthly book club.

Diane (Keaton) is recently widowed after 40 years of marriage, Vivian (Fonda) enjoys her men with no strings attached, Sharon (Bergen) is still working through her decades-old divorce, and Carol’s (Steenburgen) marriage is in a slump after 35 years. It also stars Andy García, Don Johnson, Richard Dreyfuss and Craig T. Nelson as the ladies’ significant others in the film.

Are you still dating? Or are you much happier being single these days?