Jane Fonda: On Her Own

Actress Talks To Lesley Stahl About Her Father and Ex-Husbands

(CBS)  She was into denial about a lot of things until six years into her marriage with Turner, when she was 60. She felt something was missing, and turned to Christianity, even though Turner had called it “a religion for losers,” for which he later apologized.

"I had become a Christian and I had not told him," says Fonda, who says it's one of the reasons that the marriage broke up.

Why didn't she tell him? "It's not fair. It wasn't fair at all," says Fonda. "I was yearning for the spiritual that I had not had. And I knew that if I told him or asked him before I did it, that he would talk me out of it."

Her marriage to Turner ended, but she decided to stay in Atlanta, where she lives alone in a spacious loft, decorated with Andy Warhol’s portraits of her. She told Stahl that she continues to see Turner, whom she calls her favorite ex-husband.

"We're not public. Not most of the time, anyway," says Fonda. "But no, but we see each other. He comes to my ranch and goes fishing. And occasionally, I'll have dinner with his main girlfriend."

Fonda has had dinner with Turner's girlfriend? "When you have real closure in terms of, 'Do I want to be married anymore?' And you know that you don’t, but your DNA is saturated with him, because you care so much about his well-being, then why not embrace the girlfriend?" says Fonda.

Fonda says that Turner's girlfriend before her gave her a little booklet called the "User's Manual." It included, Fonda says, "all the tips about how to handle him."

"Isn't that great?" says Fonda, who adds that she's now doing the same with Turner's new girlfriends.

Last year, Fonda returned to Hollywood to make her first movie in 15 years -- “Monster in Law.”

Making the movie also gave her a chance to spend time with Troy Garity, her son with Hayden, who followed her into acting. Part of her new life is an effort to make up for her having been an inattentive mother, especially with her firstborn, Vanessa Vadim, whom she says she neglected as a child.

"I didn’t show up for her. I was away a lot, and it’s one of the great regrets of my life, and she and I are still working on that," says Fonda, who doesn't know if her daughter has forgiven her yet.

Fonda also spends time with her daughter, LuLu, whom she unofficially adopted. LuLu, who was raised by Fonda and Tom Hayden, disagrees that Fonda wasn’t a good mother: "She was an incredible mother to me, a life-saving, I mean, the only mother I had from a very small age."

"Well, but I was older. I was older," says Fonda. "I was starting to find myself."

It’s a process she says she’s still working on, as she moves through what she calls the third act of her life.

How does she feel about getting older? "I feel like a jalopy. I’m losing fenders and hubcaps. I’ve got arthritis," says Fonda. "Ted called the other day and said, 'If you were a horse, we’d trade you in.' "

But Fonda is going strong. She likes to say she's in the third act of her life.

"I feel very complete," says Fonda. "I can honestly say I have never been happier in my life. Isn't that nice? I feel so blessed."