Shortly after meeting famed actor Henry Fonda on the set of his 1937 movie, “Wings of the Morning” (via Country Living), he and Canadian-born socialite Frances Ford Seymour wed and had two children — soon-to-be celebrated actors Jane and Peter Fonda, in 1937 and 1940, respectively. They appeared to be living an almost ideal, picturesque life. However, the reality behind the scenes was far more tragic.
In 2005, The Washington Post reported that Jane learned through medical records that Seymour, who had bipolar disorder, had been molested numerous times in her youth. In addition, her mental illness led to her being institutionalized more than once, after which she would come home and be given the cold shoulder by a young Jane, who felt angry at her for not being there. “Was I so angry with her for not being there for us?” Jane wrote in her 2005 autobiography, “My Life So Far.” “Was it I’ll-show-you-I-don’t-need-you-either?”
Seymour ended up taking her own life by cutting her throat in a mental institution April 1950, when Jane was only 12 and Peter was 10. Seymour’s husband, meanwhile, had fallen in love with another woman and was about to ask her for a divorce, per The New York Times. Henry had told the children that their mother died of natural causes; it wasn’t until a year later, per HuffPost, that Jane discovered the truth by reading about it in a movie magazine.
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Nicki
