Jane Fonda Lied About Losing Her Virginity as a Teen to “Fit In”

Jane Fonda revealed that her desire to “fit in” as a teenager caused her to lie about losing her virginity to friends at school.

The 76-year-old opens up about peer pressure and the different challenges kids face today in her new sex and relationship manual titled Being A Teen.

“One of the things I say in the book is often [young people] hear from their peers that everybody is ‘doing it.’ Not true,” she said. “In fact more adolescents are not engaged in sexual activity. I [lied about losing my virginity] because I wanted to fit in.”

Fonda in 1963

Though the actress doesn’t discuss at what age she became sexually active, she covers everything from sexting to eating disorders in the manual.

“Today it’s even more difficult for kids because of the media, cyber bullying, sexting,” the mom-of-three added. “No is a complete sentence. Kids need to learn to say no.”

The Oscar winner also asserted that teens are receiving mixed signals from society.

“We’re such a strange nation. We’re very puritanical on one level and then yet there’s a lot of sexuality in the media,” explained Fonda. “You’re supposed to look sexy and be the good girl.”

In recent years, the Barbarella actress has been extremely open about her sex life, admitting she used to have sex “without feeling” while married to first husband Roger Vadim, who she claims forced her to participate in a range of sexual acts, including threesomes.

Fonda is now in a healthy relationship with music producer Richard Perry and says the key to a stable relationship is “trusting the person you’re with.”

As she nears 80, the star also addressed her own mortality, telling TODAY‘s Matt Lauer, “I think it’s really important to realize we’re not going to live forever. I’m not scared of dying.”