Ted Turner, Jane Fonda say they will spend some time apart

Tuesday, January 4th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ATLANTA (AP) -- After eight years of marriage, media magnate Ted Turner and two-time Academy Award-winning actress Jane Fonda said Tuesday they are separating because they need some time apart.

"While we continue to be committed to the long-term success of our marriage, we find ourselves at a juncture where we must each
take some personal time for ourselves," they said in a statement.

"Therefore, we have mutually decided to spend some time apart. We
ask that you respect this decision."

Miss Fonda, 62, and Turner, 61, celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary on Dec. 21

Spokesmen for the couple, who live in an apartment atop CNN Center but have other residences as well, had no other comment.

The marriage is the third for both Miss Fonda and Turner. He has five children from previous marriages, while she has two.

Turner founded CNN and owns the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks. He created CNN in 1980 as part of his Turner Broadcasting
System Inc. empire, which was swallowed by Time Warner Inc. in 1996 in a $7.57 billion merger. Turner is now a vice chairman of Time
Warner.

In 1998, Turner established the United Nations Foundation after pledging to give $1 billion over 10 years to U.N. projects that benefit the environment and women and children's health.

Last year, Turner said he had considered running for president but decided not do so because Miss Fonda wouldn't let him.

"I thought about it a number of times," Turner said in May. "But my wife, who was married to a politician before, said she would leave me."

Miss Fonda, an antiwar activist during the Vietnam War, was married to Tom Hayden, a '60s radical and state senator in California.

She won best actress for the 1971 "Klute" and the 1978 release "Coming Home."

Her last movie, "Stanley and Iris" with Robert De Niro, came out in 1990, around the time that she and Turner began dating.