The 82-year-old actress also shares why she has no interest in dating now.
Jane Fonda is looking back at her love life. In an interview with the New York Times, the 82-year-old actress, who's been married three times throughout her life, reveals that while she doesn't "think about" missing her chance with Che Guevara, she does regret not sleeping with the man behind both "Let's Get It On" and "Sexual Healing."
"Who I do think about, and what is a great regret is Marvin Gaye. He wanted to and I didn’t. I was married to Tom [Hayden]," she recalls. "I was meeting a lot of performers to try to do concerts for Tom and the woman who was helping me do that introduced me to Marvin Gaye... apparently he had my picture on his refrigerator. I didn’t find that out until later, after he was dead."
As for how Marlon Brando stacks up against her past loves, Fonda calls the late star "disappointing," though she does consider him to be "a great actor."
On the female side of the equation, Fonda calls her Blue Bird co-star, Ava Gardner, "the sexiest woman I ever met."
"Without question," Fonda says. "She was a mensch, a true mensch, and she was a babe."
Despite her lengthy love history, the Grace and Frankie actress says she has "no interest" in dating at this stage in her life.
"I don’t have time. I am fully complete with me and my children and my grandchildren and my friends," she says of her three children, Mary Luana, 52, Vanessa, 51, Troy, 47. "I don’t want any more romance. I don’t have time for it."
"Just about every day I’ll be in the middle of something and think, 'I would never have had time to do this or read this if I was trying to keep a relationship good... Zero," she adds, before sharing that she's "not lonely."
"I’ve never been lonely," she says. "I’ve never been bored or lonely in my life."
Fonda also reveals how climate change activism -- about which she's penned a new book, What Can I Do? -- helps to keep her looking and feeling good as she ages.
"I’m an activist, so I feel good, and I think that’s the most important part of it. If I felt grumpy and depressed, I wouldn’t look so good," she says. "And the other thing is, I have good posture. And, believe it or not, that is critical. I’ve worked hard to have a very strong back."
One thing that's not contributing to her youthful appearance is new clothes, as she's vowed to "never again" shop.
"I have two closets full of clothes. I have clothes that I wore 30 years ago. I can still wear them. That’s one thing about not putting on too much weight," she says. "And when I can’t wear anything anymore, I just sell it now."
What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action will hit shelves on Sept. 8.
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