Nov. 9, 2008
Ted Turner Looks Back
Media Mogul Talks About His Life, Loves, Personal Struggles And Business
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Play CBS Video Video Feeling Alone On The Range Morley Safer speaks with Ted Turner about his financial losses after the merger of Time Warner with AOL, his feud with Rupert Murdoch, his relationship with women, and his relationship with his father.
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Video 1977: Ted Turner Walter Cronkite contributed this report on the America's Cup sailing race, in 1977, and met a very determined captain, Ted Turner.
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Video 2003: Ted Turner Ted Turner spoke to Mike Wallace, in 2003, about his initiative to donate $1 billion to the United Nations.
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Ted Turner (CBS)
His utter inability to self-censor earned Turner the nickname "The Mouth from the South." But to some it was evidence of true mental instability.
Turner admits he took the drug lithium for a while, but said it had no effect. But that didn’t stop his rival Rupert Murdoch from questioning his sanity during their legendary war of words.
Murdoch's newspapers were brutal attacking Turner, calling him nuts. And Turner thinks Murdoch had detectives following him around at times. "At least I think he did. I never had any proof of it."
Turner once said Murdoch was the most dangerous man in the world, but he no longer believes that. "I think George Bush is the most dangerous man in the world," he says. "I've made peace with Rupert. We had lunch together a few months ago. Now there's not anybody I don't like. But after this interview's over, I may not like you."
It's vintage Ted Turner, as was his joy when he agreed to AOL's merger with Time Warner. "I did it as much or more excitement and enthusiasm as I did on that night when I first made love some 42 years ago," he said.
He was now worth $10 billion. But shortly after the merger, Turner was pushed aside by Time Warner brass, even though he was the company's largest individual stockholder. Then the Internet bubble burst and AOL/Time Warner stock went into a free-fall.
Turner lost nearly $10 million a day for two and a half years. Asked if he ever considered getting out of this, he tells Safer, "But my kids were all in the stock, most of my friends were. So I sat there loyally and went down the drain with everybody else."
To the tune of $7 billion. To Turner, it was "Apocalypse Now." His marriage to Jane Fonda was breaking up, a grandchild was gravely ill, and he was jobless. His five children were worried, that like his father, Turner might take his own life.
"He contemplated suicide. And I was really worried when Jane left him, they took away his job the way they did, he was. That was the lowest I'd ever seen him," Turner's daughter Laura remembers.
"He was really depressed and a lot of other things were happening in our family as well. So it was a really, really tough time for him. And he barreled through it," son Rhett tells Safer.
"And he also got help. He got professional help," Laura says.
She says he went to a see a shrink. "And he said he always left his shrink and he cheered his shrink up. He said he would leave him laughing."
Turner admits he spent more time gallivanting around the globe than he did being a father.
"We never sat down for a meal for more than 15 minutes. I can guarantee you," Rhett remembers. "He'd also give the monologue. The conversation was his through the whole dinner."
"Yeah, after a vacation with Dad, you need a vacation," son Teddy jokes.
Recently, Turner says he has become a better father, and feels his relationship with his children is his greatest achievement.
Produced by Deirdre Naphin
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 113 CommentsHe owns more land than anyone else, but guess what...he''ll donate it back to "we, the people" when he''s gone, so what''s to hate there?!?
Okay, so Jane Fonda made some BAAAD choices way back when, but isn''t that exactly what we Americans have always fought for...freedom of expression?? Of course, she was dead-wrong, but she was, I''m convinced, working from a peace-maker''s point of view, but just went about it badly. We''re now in an even worse "bad war," but few seem to protest, except recently at the ballot box. At least now we "hail" returning troops, so perhaps actions like JF''s taught us all a good lesson!
Money isn''t everything. It helps smooth out some of the bumps but it isn''t everything.
well, boo friggin'' hoo! lonesome my arse!
Maybe The hero of Chappaquiddick, your bosom buddy, can come out and you two can go for a drive some evening?
guns don''t kill people, oldsmobiles kill people....
Are you still thinking that people like you and the above mentioned ****** buddy of yours since you are both so wealthy?....did either of you, not to mention ex-wifey, ever have an honest job, like the people you all hosed?Suffer, ya ***!
Just another booty call.
"...he touches me deeply, deeply."
Oh yeah: the Nielsens can count me in on this one.
With lines like "Come out here and spend the night by yourself some time" and "I would be there (for Ted) in a blue minute," this sounds like a tearjerker not to be missed! (Please...)
Maybe but the same goes for Bush who put us in an unjust war by lying over WMD''s.
Please stop with the Jesus stuff. It''s BS, cultish and if there was a Jesus there is probably some type of copyright infringement.
Much of the farm subsidy payout goes to individuals
and companies that clearly do not need taxpayer help. A
Washington D.C. think tank has posted individual farm
subsidy recipients on its web page at to
illustrate the unfairness of farm welfare for the well-to-do.
Farm subsidy recipients include Fortune 500 companies,
members of Congress, and millionaires such as Ted Turner
One of the reasons our Government is broke.
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God"
-Jesus Christ
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