5 min readKochiMay 6, 2026 09:44 PM IST
Media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner, who revolutionised the television news business by launching the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel, passed away at the age of 87 on Wednesday, May 6. One of the most influential media proprietors in American history, he was often referred to as “The Mouth of the South” due to his no-holds-barred attitude.
Turner is survived by his five children, 14 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. In his life, Turner had been married and divorced three times. After his first two failed marriages, he met veteran actor Jane Fonda and began dating her in 1989. They eventually tied the knot in 1991 and became one of the most celebrated and discussed power couples in the US show business. Although they eventually parted ways in 2001, they always harboured warm feelings for each other. He even once shared that she was one of the only two true romantic connections he had experienced in life.
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Ted Turner’s bison herd
During a conversation with Conan O’Brien on Team Coco a few years ago, Fonda revealed that Turner played a key role in loosening her up and helping her connect with her funny side, which she believed never existed. Mentioning that Ted was “hysterical, funny, and outrageous,” she credited him for helping her sharpen her sense of humour.
As the conversation progressed, she also pointed out that he had “the largest private herd of bison in the world.” “He has been obsessed with bison since childhood. He had 10,000 bison when I married him. He buys property and has got a couple of million acres to grow his bison herd. He has two million acres and has gone about bringing back endangered animals, insects and plants. Biologists live on all his properties, and they bring back these species,” she added.
Actor and political activist Jane Fonda and media mogul Ted Turner arrive at a party in support of Proposition 128 in Los Angeles, 1990. (AP Photo)
According to Turner’s official website, his bison herd across 13 ranches comprises approximately 45,000 bison. He purchased his first bison in 1976 and his first ranch in 1987.
Jane Fonda on her marriage with Ted Turner
While Fonda continued working through her first two marriages, she stepped away from Tinseltown after tying the knot with Turner and returned to cinema only years after they parted ways. In fact, she once revealed that she did not even imagine that she would make a comeback after their marriage. “I left for 15 years, when I married Ted Turner, and I did not think I was gonna come back. When I married him, I thought it’d be forever,” she told Entertainment Tonight.
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Talking about him and their relationship, she said, “He was sexy. He was brilliant. He had two million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay. But there was this angel on my shoulder… it was hard to even hear her voice, [saying], ‘If you stay, you will die without ever becoming who you can be. You will not really be authentic.’”
‘Ted Turner, Jane Fonda didn’t get along well initially’
Interestingly, Turner approached her after learning of her second divorce and asked her out. She, however, declined initially. After his persistent efforts, she accepted six months later.
“At first, they didn’t get along at all. In fact, they didn’t like each other. I heard this from both of them. It was months later before they decided to try again. And they evolved into one of the nicest romances that I’ve ever known about,” CNN quoted their friend and former US President Jimmy Carter as saying.
Why Ted Turner, Jane Fonda parted ways
Although there were rumours that Fonda’s conversion to Christianity caused their split, Turner himself later refuted these claims. While he was “upset” over her conversion, Turner mentioned in his memoir ‘Call Me Ted’ that they had “trouble communicating” even when they were together, as they spent a considerable amount of time apart.
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Opening up about their separation, Fonda admitted that she walked out of the marriage as she was no longer keen on living out of a suitcase. “I would never love anyone like I love him. But I just couldn’t keep moving in his world, along the surface for the rest of my life. I knew that I would get to the end of my life and regret not doing the things that I also needed to do for me,” she reportedly said.
