Chelsea Handler is looking back on a time when Jane Fonda taught her an important lesson.
In her upcoming book I’ll Have What She’s Having, the comedian and writer, 49, recalls an embarrassing moment that occurred when she attended a party hosted by Fonda, 87. Handler told Parade in a Jan. 3 cover story that the Grace and Frankie star reprimanded her for poor behavior at the event.
“I went to the bathroom mirror at her house and looked at myself, and I was like, ‘Okay, you have two choices in how you’re going to handle this,’” Handler told the outlet. “‘You could be defensive, and that just means she’s right. Or you can take it in and realize that she did not have to sit down and take the time to tell you this.’”
Despite being embarrassed, Handler said that she considered the encounter with her friend to be a learning experience.
“She could have just avoided me for the rest of our lives and never hung out with me again and just been like, ‘Okay, Chelsea’s badly behaved, I don’t want anything to do with her,’” Handler said. “But she set an example for me that day. That was an act of love.”
I’ll Have What She’s Having, which will be published on Feb. 25 by The Dial Press, is Handler’s latest book, following bestsellers like 2009’s Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea and 2019’s Life Will Be the Death of Me.
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The new essay collection details Handler’s transformation toward “becoming the woman she always wanted to be,” per the book’s synopsis, and includes stories about her family, love and learning to spend time alone. Handler also touches upon her 2022 breakup with former partner Jo Koy, though she told Parade that she doesn’t divulge much in the book, and didn’t tell Koy that she wrote about him.
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“It’s not nice to him to give away the details. I loved him at one point in my life, and I don’t want to hurt him,” Handler said. “And also, I’m at a different place in my life where I don’t have to give away the dish. My breakup with Jo Koy was the first mature ending to a relationship that I was in. My behavior was mature and graceful. I honored the relationship by never actually divulging what happened, and I liked that version of myself.”
The new book will also be published on Handler’s 50th birthday. The author told Parade that she has her own feelings about the milestone.
“Everyone keeps asking me [how I feel about turning 50], and I feel like they want me to say something like [sounding slightly bummed], ‘I can’t believe I’m 50,’” Handler said. “[But] this is awesome. My life is exactly what I hoped it would be — it’s more than I hoped it would be. I had no idea what the possibilities were or that I could live a life like this and feel so free.”
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