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When it comes to relationships, our 20s are usually reserved for battling through the trenches of bad dates and hookups, our 30s help weed out what we want in a significant other, and our 40s are when we truly come into our power as self-assured women. Anecdotally speaking, of course.
But for the patron saint of single women, Jane Fonda, it’s taken until her 80s to determine her ideal partner: a 20-year-old.
After swearing off dating entirely in 2018—citing in a 2021 interview that she doesn’t want to be in a sexual relationship again: “I don’t have that desire”—the 85-year-old has shared the one thing that would make her reconsider her stance on romance.
“I’m ashamed to say this, but if I were to take a lover, he’d have to be 20,” Fonda revealed on a podcast earlier this week. It turns out, the fountain of youth is more altruistic than we first thought.
“Now, why specifically 20?” podcast host and comedian Heather McMahan asked the iconic actress and activist. “Because I don’t like old skin!” Fonda acerbically replied.
Though the ideal meet-cute of running into your future partner at a bar has been pandered to us as desirable, it’s a situation that Fonda will never find herself in again as her criteria is set under the legal drinking age.
Not only will Fonda not have to worry about picking out a bottle of pét nat to impress her suitor, but she won’t ever have concerns about sharing her expensive skincare collection.
Fonda’s dating revelation comes after supermodel Linda Evangelista mused on her romance concerns. The 58-year-old shared her relatable hang-ups, revealing that she’s no longer interested in literally or figuratively sharing her bed with a partner. “I don’t want to sleep with anybody anymore. I don’t want to hear somebody breathing.”
Fonda and Evangelista join a long line of inspirational women who have made delicious headlines by sharing their non-negotiables. But there is a lot to learn from their pearls of wisdom.
On saying no, Kim Cattrall famously remarked: “I don’t want to be in a situation for even an hour where I’m not enjoying myself.” Whoopi Goldberg even rejected marriage by stating she doesn’t want somebody in her house. Modern dating commandments we’re ready to commit to heart.
