She became the queen of the workout tape in the 1980s.
And Jane Fonda, 85, has revealed she persisted with her exercises even while undergoing brutal chemotherapy during her cancer battle last year.
‘Normally, I can hold a push-up for a couple of minutes,’ she told the Hollywood Reporter. ‘When the chemo was in me, after 30 seconds, I’d collapse.’
Icon: Jane Fonda, who became the queen of the workout tape in the 1980s (pictured), persisted with her exercises even while undergoing chemotherapy last year
Jane, who features on the cover of the trade magazine’s latest issue, faced down non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma last year and managed to beat the cancer into remission.
Her triumph over the illness was hard-won, however, as the chemotherapy ‘really hit me hard. Sometimes my energy just gave out.’
Although she used to prefer taking the stairs, she found herself riding the elevator at her house because of the way the treatments depleted her stamina.
She announced in September that she had cancer, acknowledging she was ‘privileged as a celebrity’ and pointing out how ‘lucky’ she was to ‘have health insurance and access to the best doctors and treatment.’
The look: ‘Normally, I can hold a push-up for a couple of minutes,’ she told the Hollywood Reporter, adding: ‘When the chemo was in me, after 30 seconds, I’d collapse’
Frontwoman: Jane, who features on the cover of the trade magazine’s latest issue, faced down non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma last year and managed to beat the cancer into remission
‘Sometimes my energy just gave out’: Her triumph over the illness was hard-won, however, as the chemotherapy ‘really hit me hard’
Looking forward: ‘I’m not scared of dying,’ she said during her wide-ranging new interview, adding ‘I think I’m telling the truth when I say that’
‘I didn’t know how to be a parent’: Jane has three adult children, two daughters and a son, and confessed that her causes for remorse ‘all have to do with children’
Advanced age: She also disclosed her habit of checking the obituary column as she has ‘a few boyfriends that I always wonder: “Are they still alive?”‘
In November she shared that the cancer was in remission and noted: ‘I’m especially happy because while my first 4 chemo treatments were rather easy for me, only a few days of being tired, the last chemo session was rough and lasted 2 weeks making it hard to accomplish much of anything.
‘I’m not scared of dying,’ she said during her wide-ranging new interview. ‘I think I’m telling the truth when I say that. But I am really scared of getting to the end with a lot of regrets when it’s too late to do anything. And when you figure that out, it instructs the way you live between now and the end.’
Jane has three adult children, two daughters and a son, and confessed that her causes for remorse ‘all have to do with children.’
The controversial activist, whose son Troy is named after a Viet Cong bomber who tried to assassinate the U.S. defense secretary, candidly admitted: ‘I didn’t know how to be a parent. But it’s never too late. You can show up.’
Staying active: Jane is pictured attending a Greenpeace rally in Washington, DC this past December, the month after she announced the cancer was in remission
‘Privileged’: She announced in September that she had cancer, acknowledging how ‘lucky’ she was to ‘have health insurance and access to the best doctors and treatment’
She also disclosed her habit of checking the obituary column as, at her age, she has ‘a few boyfriends that I always wonder: “Are they still alive?”‘
The Klute star’s latest remarks about exercise come more than four decades after she released her smash hit 1982 videotape Jane Fonda’s Workout.
Lapped up all over America, it became the bestselling VHS for six years and remains one of the most successful videotape releases in history.
Jane, who veered between anorexia and bulimia as a young woman, ventured into the exercise industry to fundraise for her left-wing political causes including a PAC run by her then-husband Tom Hayden, one of the infamous Chicago Seven.
Remember when: The Klute star’s latest remarks about exercise come more than four decades after she released her smash hit 1982 videotape Jane Fonda’s Workout
Runaway success: Lapped up all over America, it became the bestselling VHS for six years and remains one of the most successful videotape releases in history
Having been advised to ‘never go into a business you don’t understand,’ she had a brainwave: ‘The workout! If there’s one thing I understand it’s working out.’
In her HBO documentary Jane Fonda In Five Acts, she said the tape was made with ‘one camera’ and added: ‘There were no teleprompters or anything like that.’
She dished: ‘I wrote the script sitting on a floor of a hotel room. We did our own hair and makeup. I mean, it was a spit and a prayer – and the rest is history.’
After the runaway success of her original workout tape, she released multiple more and in her later years broke into exercise DVDs targeted at older women.
‘Movement is a gift’: Jane has continued with her exercises into her mid-80s, letting her fans get a glimpse of her fitness regimen on social media