Highlights
- Fans criticized Jane Fonda for her plastic surgeries, labeling them “anti-feminist,” sparking heated controversy online.
- Megyn Kelly faced backlash for grilling Fonda about her surgeries, revealing that it was to make Robert Redford comfortable during an interview.
- Despite multiple cosmetic procedures, Fonda has sworn off further plastic surgery, admitting to concerns about potentially looking “distorted.”
Jane Fonda has been a feminist icon since her “lucky” ascent to fame in the 1960s. Unfortunately, the movie star – who made a fortune from her workout tapes – had fans upset after undergoing a few “anti-feminist” plastic surgeries. The Grace & Frankie alum has been open about going under the knife. She said she “can’t pretend” she’s “vain,” for which some fans have forgiven her.
But in 2017, Megyn Kelly “awkwardly” re-sparked the discussion. It was during a joint interview with Fonda and Robert Redford, who were promoting their Netflix flick, Our Souls at Night. The Barbarella star – who was accused of snitching on the US during the Vietnam war – said she was “shocked” by the interrogation. Years later, Kelly said she did it to make Redford “comfortable.” Here’s how.
Megyn Kelly Justified Grilling Jane Fonda About Plastic Surgery In Front Of Robert Redford
In February 2023, Kelly revealed that she “awkwardly” asked Fonda about plastic surgery for Redford – who was “visibly uncomfortable” about his co-star who “kept wanting to talk about being in bed with” him in previous press talks. “Jane Fonda was on set [at NBC in 2017] and so was Robert Redford … and she had been doing a publicity tour with all this weird sex talk about him,” the journalist said on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show.
The pair’s characters play a widow and widower who agree to sleep in bed together, platonically, to cope with their grief and sadness. “And you could tell he was visibly uncomfortable with it,” Kelly said of Fonda’s bit. “And during the commercial break, Robert Redford’s publicist specifically asked me if I would try to keep her off of that, if I would redirect the conversation to something else.”
After the commercial break, the former NBC correspondent grilled the Monster-In-Law star about “having work done,” which she justified as a “favor for Robert Redford.” In an admittedly “awkward” manner, Kelly told the two-time Oscar winner: “You’ve been an example to everyone in how to age beautifully and with strength and unapologetically.”
“You admit you’ve had work done, which I think is to your credit. But you look amazing … I read you said you felt not proud to admit you had work done. Why not?”
Fonda replied: “We really want to talk about that now?” She then changed the topic by talking about the film. In 2023, Kelly said she thought the discussion would be cool given the Moving On star’s openness about cosmetic procedures. “So that’s why I thought I would come back in with something she talked about a million times before, her plastic surgery. And it was relevant because it’s [the movie] about aging and a woman coming to terms with what that means,” Kelly recounted.
However, the podcaster admitted: “So I thought it would be the non-awkward place to go. Wrong!” Fonda later explained that the host’s questions came off offensive “given the fact that we don’t have a lot of time and Bob is right here, it’s a weird thing to bring up — whether I’ve had plastic surgery or not.” She said she was “a little bit” shocked about it.
Jane Fonda’s “only problem” working with Robert Redford was that she’d always “fall into his eyes and forget [her] dialogue.”
Jane Fonda’s Fans Called Her Plastic Surgery “Anti-Feminist”
Part of why Kelly’s plastic surgery questions sparked controversy was that Fonda’s fans have deemed her plastic surgery “anti-feminist.” In a 2010 Valentine’s blog on her website, one user commented: “I’m glad you were honest about having the work done, better than lying about it. I’m surprised [though] you said you did it because you want to get ‘work’ (one of your reasons).”
They added: “I know roles in Hollywood suck for older women, but I find it hard to believe that JANE FONDA has trouble getting work…” But many fans also defended the 9 to 5 alum. “I have a question for all of you who think it is anti-feminist to get plastic surgery or somehow a sellout,” one argued, before making an interesting analogy:
“What if a very young-looking, beautiful woman with great genetics got very ill. The illness was not do to anything she did, she always ate healthy, didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs.”
The netizen told the haters: “The illness in fact was caused by what others did. The illness left her increasingly disfigured, to the point she no longer looked like herself. She just wanted to go back to looking like her old self, because looking in the mirror now caused her trauma.
“In your mind, would it not be okay for her to have cosmetic work done either?” they asked. “Is her disfigurement ‘natural’ and what a woman ‘should look like and accept.’ Would a man, say Viktor Yushchenko, be judged as harshly for his disfigurement if he chose surgery?”
In 2020, Fonda told Elle Canada that she’s “struggled” with her image for a long time, which caused her to undergo some procedures amid a 20-year battle with anorexia and bulimia until her 40s. “I try to make it very clear that it has been a long and continuing struggle for me,” she confessed. “I post pictures of me looking haggard — and once with my tooth out! This is a fake tooth. It came out in a restaurant in Portugal, and I posted it (on social media).”
Here are the plastic surgeries Fonda has had in the past decades:
- Breast implants at the beginning of her career (probably in the ’60s)
- Full facelift in her 40s (approx. late ’70s or in the early ’80s)
- Second full facelift in her 70s (before or around 2010)
- Chin lift and eye surgery for eyebags by age 75 (around 2015 when Grace & Frankie came out)
Jane Fonda Is Done With Plastic Surgery Due To Fears Of Looking “Distorted”
By 2020, Fonda had officially sworn off plastic surgery. “I can’t pretend that I’m not vain, but there isn’t going to be any more plastic surgery—I’m not going to cut myself up anymore,” she told Elle Canada. “I have to work every day to be self-accepting; it doesn’t come easy to me.” In 2018, she came clean about getting work done in the HBO documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts: “I’m glad I look good for my age, but I’ve had plastic surgery. I’m not going to lie about that.”
“On one level, I hate the fact that I’ve had the need to alter myself physically to feel that I’m OK. I wish I wasn’t like that.
The Book Club star added in the documentary: “I love older faces. I love lived-in faces. I loved Vanessa Redgrave’s face. I wish I was braver. But I am what I am.” In 2015, Fonda said she was “not proud of” getting some nip-and-tuck. “But I grew up so defined by my looks,” she said of her circumstances. “I was taught to think that if I wanted to be loved, I had to be thin and pretty. That leads to a lot of trouble.”
In 2022, she warned fans that plastic surgery could be “addictive” and that she was over it. “We all know a lot of women who are wealthy who’ve had all kinds of facelifts and things like that and they look terrible,” she stated before sharing, “I had a facelift and I stopped because I don’t want to look distorted. I’m not proud of the fact that I had [one]. A lot of women, I don’t know, they’re addicted to it. I don’t know if I had it to do over if I would do it.”
Source: NewsFinale
