Ted Turner’s legacy as a businessman and outspoken environmentalist will continue after his death at 87.
Turner died “surrounded by his family” Wednesday, May 6, his company Turner Enterprises announced in a news release obtained by USA TODAY. The mogul, who used his massive media fortune to uplift causes, including United Nations refugee and children programs and conservation efforts, is survived by his five children, fourteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
The maverick businessman earned his fortune by turning a financially struggling Atlanta TV station into a media empire around CNN, the first 24-hour cable news station, as well as his celebrated ownership of the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks.
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Here’s who Turner is leaving his legacy to, and just how much the late business titan was worth upon his death.
Was Ted Turner married?
Ted Turner was not married at the time of his death. The businessman was married three times: to Judy (Nye) Turner in the ’60s, with whom he had daughter Laura and son Robert Edward “Teddy” IV; Jane Smith Turner from 1964 to 1980, with whom he had his three remaining children, Beau, Rhett and Jennie; and, perhaps most famously, to actress Jane Fonda, from 1991 to 2001.
After his failed marriages, of which Turner would express regret, the businessman at one point reportedly had four girlfriends. He joked to Piers Morgan, during a 2012 interview on CNN, that he maintained the “complicated” arrangement “with great difficulty.”
Ted Turner’s children followed in his footsteps
Most of Turner’s children have followed in his philanthropic and conservationist footsteps.
Laura Turner Seydel, his oldest, is an environmental activist and works as the chair of the Captain Planet Foundation, among other organizations and nonprofit boards, including those of her parents.
Robert Edward “Teddy” Turner IV has worked in various parts of the Turner business, including in television production, before working in yachting brokerage. He currently teaches economics and serves on various organization boards, including his mother’s Jane Smith Turner Foundation. He also made an unsuccessful run for Congress in 2013.
Beau Turner’s work includes serving in various leadership roles that continue his father’s environmental and wildlife conservation efforts, including as chairman of the board of trustees for the Turner Endangered Species Fund.
Rhett Turner continues the conversationist legacy through photography and documentary filmmaking through his film production company.
And the environmentalist work of Jennie Turner Garlington, his youngest child, has included serving as trustee of the Turner Foundation, on the boards of other wildlife conservation organizations and as a CNN TV producer for the network’s now-defunct Environment Unit.
Ted Turner net worth
