Jane Fonda is remembering Ted Turner as a larger-than-life partner who changed her for good. In an Instagram post on Wednesday showing an older photo of her and Turner embracing, the 88-year-old actor paid tribute to the CNN founder, who died the same day at age 87, calling him a "gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate" and crediting him with needing her in a way no one else ever had. Their high-profile romance—the third marriage for each—spanned the 1990s and included everything from Atlanta Braves games together to a joint appearance at the 1992 Earth Summit, per USA Today.
Fonda has long been open about the turbulence behind the scenes, however, including Turner's affair just weeks after their 1991 wedding, their fiery confrontation over it, and their eventual 2001 divorce. Yet she once wrote that she was "struck by how happy I was much of the time" and noted Turner kept a promise of fidelity for seven years. Neither remarried, and both later spoke of a lasting bond. Fonda even once called Turner her "favorite ex-husband," per People.
"When you love somebody and you really love them, you never stop loving them, no matter how hard you try, you can't," Turner said in a 2012 interview. "He was sexy. He was brilliant. He had 2 million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay," Fonda once said of Turner, per the AP. In her Instagram tribute, Fonda imagined Turner in heaven, welcomed by the many animal species he helped protect, before signing off: "Rest in Peace, dearest Ted. You are loved and you will be remembered."
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