For numerous years most of us never knew that Jane Fonda had an adopted African America daughter, Mary Williams, whom she adopted when Mary was about 14 years old. Mary was growing up in a low income pretty rough neighborhood in Oakland, CA and her family largely consist of ex Black Panther members.
Jane is as widely popular for her legendary acting credits as she is for her political and social activism stemming as far back as the 60’s era. Mary became close with Jane at the age of 12, while attending Jane’s summer camp, Fonda’s Camp Laurel Springs, but it wasn’t until two years after that Jane actually offered to adopt Mary and there was a very good reason for that.
During the 2 summers Mary spent at Jane Fonda’s camp, Jane was instantly drawn to Mary’s “bubbly” personality, but after Mary suddenly stopped coming to Jane’s camp, she knew something had to be wrong.
Jane said that for two years she watched Mary have that same bubbly personality. Then Mary didn’t come back and no one knew why. Only for her to return again and she was like a totally different person. Mary was much more withdrawn and her smile was gone and that’s when Mary finally opened to a camp counselor that she’d been raped, which explained her absence and her demeanor.
Jane then knew that she had to get Mary out of the environment she was living in, because it was killing her spirit right in front of her eyes. Jane consulted with Mary’s mother, and they permitted for her to live with Jane and her then-billionaire spouse, Ted Turner. The rest is history.
Mary has now written a memoir, which she released in 2013, about growing up as the adopted African American daughter of the legendary Jane Fonda titled, “The Lost Daughter.” Mary says Jane is the person “she loves the most” in the world, and she also mentioned to ABC that she had anger toward her biological mother (shown in the video below) for a while, which she later moved past.