Judge grants divorce to Jane Fonda, Ted Turner

<br>ATLANTA (AP) _ A judge granted Jane Fonda a divorce from CNN founder Ted Turner on Tuesday, ending nearly a decade of marriage without fanfare. <br><br>Fulton County Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan

Tuesday, May 22nd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ATLANTA (AP) _ A judge granted Jane Fonda a divorce from CNN founder Ted Turner on Tuesday, ending nearly a decade of marriage without fanfare.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan granted Fonda's divorce petition, which she filed last month, said her attorney, John C. Mayoue.

``I feel sadness,'' the 63-year-old actress and former fitness guru said in a statement that Mayoue issued. ``We shared 10 years together, and I will always care for him. Now it's time to move on, and I wish him well.''

Turner's spokesman, Phillip Evans, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Mayoue declined to discuss details of the divorce settlement except to say that ``all issues are resolved.''

Turner, the 62-year-old billionaire founder of CNN, married Fonda in December 1991. It was the third marriage for both. The couple announced in January 2000 that they were separating.

Fonda's divorce filing said only that the marriage was ``irretrievably broken,'' standard language for a divorce petition in Georgia. But Turner told The New Yorker in an interview published last month that Fonda's decision to become a Christian played a role in their breakup.

``She just came home and said, `I've become a Christian,''' he said. ``Before that, she was not a religious person. That's a pretty big change for your wife of many years to tell you. That's a shock.''

Fonda, who won best-actress Oscars for 1971's ``Klute'' and 1978's ``Coming Home,'' told the magazine: ``My becoming a Christian upset him very much _ for good reason. He's my husband and I chose not to discuss it with him _ because he would have talked me out of it.''

She said Turner also knew the birth of her daughter's child would keep her away from home.

``He needs someone to be there one hundred percent of the time. He thinks that's love. It is not love. It's babysitting,'' she said. ''... We went in different directions. I grew up.''

Turner has five children from previous marriages, while Fonda has two.

Turner lost direct control of his Atlanta-based media empire in the mergers that created AOL Time Warner. He is worth more than $9 billion, according to Forbes magazine.