At 85, Jane Fonda Shares Why She’s Happier Than Ever and What Life Has Taught Her About Parenting

At 85, Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda is busier than ever, calling this chapter of her life “the happiest I’ve ever been.” Earlier this year, 80 For Brady was released in theaters starring Fonda, Sally Fields, Rita Moreno, and Lily Tomlin. This weekend, a second film also starring Fonda, hit theaters called Book Club: The Next Chapter—a sequel to her 2019 hit Book Club.

Fonda underwent chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma last year and is now in remission. Despite life’s many ups and downs, she has always found a way to move forward. In an Exclusive interview with PEOPLE, she said, “There’s been tragedy and hard things in my life. But I’ve never succumbed to them. I’ve been resilient all my life.”

Earlier this year, Fonda sat for an interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace, where she opened up about life, death, and regrets. She shared, “I’m not scared of dying…What I’m really scared of, is getting to the end of life with a lot of regrets when there’s no time to do anything about it.” One of her biggest sources of regret? Parenting.

She said, “I was not the kind of mother that I wished that I had been to my children. I have great, great children—talented, smart. And I just didn’t know how to do it.”

But, through her advocacy work, Fonda has learned better. “I’ve studied parenting, and I know what it’s supposed to be now,” she told Wallace. “I didn’t know then. So, I’m trying to show up now.”

You can watch her full interview with CNN here.