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Ted Turner Proved Even Billionaires Could be Human

The swashbuckling founder of CNN was redeemed by his vulnerabilities.

Ted Turner at a press conference in 1985.

Ted Turner, thrice married and a notorious womanizer, had many exes, the most famous of whom was his last wife, Jane Fonda. This was also Turner’s most surprising relationship since, on paper at least, the two couldn’t have been more different. He was a buccaneer capitalist, best known for launching CNN, the world’s first 24/7 cable news channel, in 1980. Politically, he seemed an avatar of the boorish New South, prone to making ethnic jokes and deriding his media rivals in 1980 as “a bunch of pinkos.”

Fonda, by contrast, was more than pink; she was bright red, a Hollywood superstar known for her radical commitments, including her support for the Vietnamese national liberation movement, which took her to Hanoi in 1972 when the American imperialist adventure was careening toward its disastrous conclusion.

Their marriage lasted from 1991 to 2001—a decade when Turner was on top of the world, and not just because he was betrothed to one of the most talented actors in the world. CNN became the defining media outlet of its era thanks to the Gulf War of 1990–91. Prior to that conflict, skeptics had often asked if the world really needed around-the-clock news. But the Gulf War confirmed that CNN had not just a global audience but an unprecedented ability to present the news with real-time urgency. (A decade later, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack, CNN was itself supplanted by Fox News, a network whose partisanship and jingoism matched the mood of the George W. Bush administration better than the more sober internationalism and hard-news focus of Turner’s network. CNN has arguably been searching for a coherent identity ever since.)

No one was closer to Turner when he was at the absolute peak of his influence than Fonda. The two remained close even after their divorce, and Fonda bestowed on Turner the title of “my favorite ex-husband.” Fittingly, she’s also provided the most tender tribute to him, placing a surprising emphasis on his sensitivity:

He swept into my life, a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate and I’ve never been the same. He needed me. No one had ever let me know they needed me, and this wasn’t your average human being that needed me, this was the creator of CNN, and Turner Classic Movies, who had won the America’s Cup as the world’s greatest sailor. He had a big life, a brilliant mind and a soaring sense of humor.He could also take care of me. That was new as well. To be needed and cared for simultaneously is transformative. Ted Turner helped me believe in myself. He gave me confidence. I think I did the same for him, but that’s what women are raised to do. Men like Ted aren’t supposed to express need and vulnerability. That was Ted’s greatest strength, I believe.

He swept into my life, a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate and I’ve never been the same. He needed me. No one had ever let me know they needed me, and this wasn’t your average human being that needed me, this was the creator of CNN, and Turner Classic Movies, who had won the America’s Cup as the world’s greatest sailor. He had a big life, a brilliant mind and a soaring sense of humor.He could........

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