Fonda Says She's Overcome Her 'Disease to Please'

April 5, 2005 — -- Jane Fonda has worn almost as many hats as the characters she's played. She's a two-time Oscar-winning actress, an outspoken political and social activist, and an exercise guru.

Fonda's unflinching autobiography, "My Life So Far," hits bookstores today, and she told "Good Morning America's" Diane Sawyer that behind the seemingly self-assured Jane Fonda was another Jane Fonda who had strength in everything except her personal life.

"There was a continuity of courage in every way except behind closed doors in my most intimate relationships, where I would give up my strength and my courage because I didn't want to be left," Fonda said.

Fonda's book is divided into three "acts." Act one covers her often painful childhood, her early films and her turbulent marriage to filmmaker Roger Vadim. In act two, she begins to discover her activism and discusses her marriages to Tom Hayden and Ted Turner.

And now, at 67, she says she is in her third act, trying to live a more honest life and sharing the lessons she has learned about overcoming self-image problems and dealing with men.

In the book, Fonda talks about growing up with her famous, distant father, Henry Fonda, and a depressive mother who eventually committed suicide, and how those family dynamics influenced her relationships with men and her body image.

Fonda battled bulima for over 20 years, even when she was building her workout empire. She told Sawyer she would binge and purge up to eight times a day.

"I think when as a girl what is communicated to you is that you have to be perfect in order to be loved, you kind of, well, at least I moved out of myself, and left a hollow being," Fonda said. "And I filled it with anxiety and I filled it with food. Some people fill it with food or drugs or gambling or booze or shopping, but I filled it with food."