Chelsea Handler Details Being Called Out By Jane Fonda After She ‘Behaved Badly’ at Her Party

In her new memoir, I’ll Have What She’s Having, the comedian — who first briefly shared the story last month — detailed being confronted by the legendary actress after she “behaved badly” at a party Fonda threw.

Handler, 50, said one day she received an email from Fonda, 87, who asked her to come over for dinner, with the former describing the email as “ominous.”

“I got an email from Jane Fonda one day that said, ‘Hi, Chelsea, It’s Jane. I was wondering if you could come over to my house for dinner. I’d like to talk to you about a couple of things,'” she wrote.

“I had been friends with Jane for at least ten years and it seemed like sort of a terse email to get from her, but since Jane Fonda is a f–king legend, I didnt hesitate to respond with “Of course. Let me know when,'” Handler continued, adding that Fonda asked her to come over that same evening.

At the time, the author said Fonda’s message made it seem that she was “in trouble,” writing that she was “exactly right. I was in trouble.”

According to Handler, when she arrived at Fonda’s home, she declined the chef’s offer to have a drink, writing, “If I’m about to be reprimanded, I want to be fully alert for my defense.”

“Jane’s demeanor seemed a bit cold, and I was anxious to find out exactly what I had done,” Handler wrote, adding that Fonda asked her “why” she had been invited over to dinner.

After Handler admitted she didn’t know why, Fonda said, per Handler, “You may have noticed I was a little icy toward you when I saw you at Shonda Rhimes’s fundraiser for Congressman John Lewis.”

The Chelsea Lately alum said the fundraiser had taken place three months previously, adding that looking back, she “noticed [Fonda] was a little icy” toward her at the event.

“I hadn’t obsessed over it, because at that point, I was bouncing through life with no direction or intention and other people’s feelings were not my problem,” she admitted.

Handler said Fonda then dropped the news, bringing up the former’s behavior at a previous party.

“You behaved badly at my party. From the moment you came in, you had a black cloud hanging over you and you insulted people and it brought the whole party down. I don’t know what drugs you were on, but a few people told me you were horrible to them,” she wrote, recalling Fonda’s words. “I don’t get it. Why did you even come if you were in that kind of mood”

Handler wrote that at the time, she thought, “This is a doublef–ksywhoopsiedoodle. Jane Fonda calling me out on my badly behaved self was as serious as it gets.”

“This was definitely not the woman I had dreamed of becoming,” she added.

Looking back, the TV personality described being scolded by Fonda as “embarrassing, painful, and definitely cringeworthy,” before admitting that she “didn’t let any of those things diminish the fact that Jane had taken the time out of her life to be honest with me.”

“I needed someone to do that with me, and even in that moment of shame I knew she would never have to speak to me about my behavior again because that’s what that kind of honesty deserves: action,” she added.

Handler noted that she had “just started going to therapy” at the time, adding that she felt “comfort” knowing she could bring up her behavior at Fonda’s party to her therapist.

Ultimately, Handler said being called out by Fonda taught her an important lesson.

“On a bigger note, Jane’s admonishment made me understand and think about what it is I am trying to put out into this world. Definitely not what I was doing at Jane’s party,” she wrote. “The truth of the matter was: Who knows what drugs I was on? It could have been anything. It’s my state of mind that determines my behavior on drugs, and if I’m in a good place in my life, and I’m grounded, drugs are fun, and so am I; if I’m in a bad state of mind or in a bad time of my life, drugs will only make me defensive or angry, and that’s when I bite.”

“What struck me in that moment was Jane’s brutal honesty. Something that has defined my entire career, but something I had never been on the receiving side of,” she said, adding that she and Fonda “continued” their dinner, and she explained what her words meant to her.

“I told her that while this news was hard to hear, I had been in therapy for the past two months because I knew something was up with me, and that I had in fact been dealing with the issue at hand — my deep anger,” Handler said.

She wrote that Fonda replied, “Good … Go find out what your problem is, because your gifts are plentiful, and sometimes people with the most gifts have the easiest time throwing them in the trash. Don’t be a product of your environment, Chelsea. Make your environment be a product of you.”

“This was the definition of sisterhood,” Handler added.

She went on to share that she’s seen Fonda “many times” since their dinner, writing that she even attended the star’s 80th birthday party. Handler said she tried “not to blow it.”

“It was my first attempt to prove to her that I would only be on my best behavior from here on out. And I kept trying to prove it to her,” she said, adding, “I redeemed myself with Jane and there was such value in that — in proving to someone that you are indeed the person they thought you could be.”

Handler further opened up about being confronted by Fonda over her past behavior during an appearance on the latest episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s On Me podcast.

Reflecting on the moment, she said, “I remember being so mortified, like feeling really embarrassed and shameful, but at the same time, it was like a light bulb went off about like, this is the kind of sister I want to be to other people.”

“I want to make sure that A, that she never has to talk to me again, that I make the improvements and address the issue, and B, that I am the same type of woman to other women that she was to me,” she added.

When Ferguson asked if she could remember her behavior at Fonda’s party, Handler said while she doesn’t “remember much,” she knows she felt “so angry” and was in “one of those very aggressive moods where I was probably giving people s–t.” She added that she recalls speaking to Tom Hanks and Maria Shriver at the party.

As she previously shared, the event took place shortly after Donald Trump was elected president — for the first time — in 2016.

“I think I was just on whatever drugs, you know, …  It was around the time I think Trump was elected, and I was so angry, and my anger was all misplaced,” Handler told Ferguson. “I mean, of course, you could be angry about that, but it was too much anger, and it was like what I realized in therapy, it was all this like delayed grief and anger I had about losing my brother when I was younger that it was just coming to the surface. So, like, all my bravado and all my steeliness was a result of me having to be.”

I’ll Have What She’s Having is out now.