Jane Fonda reveals why she’s not having sex anymore
Actress Jane Fonda has openly discussed her sex life in the past. At the age of 74, she famously broke age stereotypes by saying that she had “never had such a fulfilling sex life”.
Now, at the age of 80, Fonda has announced that she has “closed up shop down there”.
"I'm 80," Fonda told entertainment news show Extra at the LA premiere of Book Club – her new movie also starring Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen and Candice Bergen.
"It's about very important things: friendship and sex," Fonda described about the movie which follows the story of older women reading Fifty Shades of Grey in their book club.
"And that it's OK for older women to have both."
But she added: "I'm not dating anymore, but I did up until a couple of years ago. I’m 80. I’ve closed up shop down there.”
Last year, data collected from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, found that men and women over 80 reported more shared sexual compatibility and emotional closeness than those in their 50s, 60s and 70s.
Co-author of the report, Dr David Lee, told The Guardian that sex was not defined by penetration.
“We saw quite a lot of adaptation in the older people, saying they no longer had penetrative sexual intercourse and were more content with kissing and cuddling and general intimacy. We kept a very broad definition of sex. We saw what appeared to be adaptive behaviour in the older members of our sample."
However, Dr Lee also found that only 10 per cent of women aged 85 or older, and less than 25 per cent of men aged over 80, had a sex life.
"They're a minority, clearly, but they're an interesting minority," said Dr Lee.
"Among those who were [sexually active], it was quite interesting that they seemed happy with their sexual lives."
A survey released from the University of Michigan a few days ago found that 84 per cent of men and 69 per cent of women believe sex is important to a relationship at any age.
Over half of men and just under a third of women said they were sexually active in some way.
"I think it's important for everyone to know that people in their 70s can be sexually attractive and sexually active. They don't have to be ... and lots of people have opted out of that, but they can be,” Jane Fonda said.