Jane Fonda pays tribute to fellow fitness icon Richard Simmons

Jane Fonda has paid a touching tribute to fellow ’80s fitness icon, Richard Simmons, who passed away over the weekend.

Fonda posted her respects via Instagram, alongside a photo of the pair smiling together.

“Richard Simmons always wanted people to feel good and be happy,” she shared. “He would go out of his way to make people happy. I often wondered if maybe nobody had made him happy when he was a little boy.”

Fonda recalled how Simmons, who died on Saturday 13 July, once popped out of a huge cake at the launch of a Jane Fonda Workout event.

Fonda, like Simmons, was an icon of 1980s workout videos and fitness.

In her post, the Grace and Frankie actress also remembered the last time she saw Simmons.

“I saw him last when I took him and a boyfriend of his to lunch at the Polo Lounge. The relationship was new and he was proud. I never saw or heard from him again and, like many thousands of others, I’ve mourned his absence from my life.”

Fonda lost contact with Simmons when he stopped making public appearances and teaching at his workout studio in February 2014. He withdrew from public life almost entirely.

“I hope he felt the love so many were sending him these last years,” Fonda’s post concluded. “I hope it made him happy. Rest in Peace, Dear Richard.”