Ted Turner Looks Back

Ted Turner is like Dracula: you have to drive a stake through his heart to stop him, and though many have come close, he's back.

Though he's gone from being a really rich man to a mere billionaire, he's maintained the manic energy that drove him to change the landscape of the information age by creating CNN and 24-hour news.

The uncompromising competitor - who won the America's Cup, is the ex-husband of Jane Fonda, the batty billionaire who challenged his arch enemy, fellow billionaire Rupert Murdoch to a boxing match, once described as both genius and jackass - has now decided to reflect on a tumultuous life and more or less tell all in a memoir

This lonesome cowboy hates his own company: he admits he doesn't like being alone.

"These are big places to be alone, I'll tell you. Come out here and spend the night by yourself some time, you know, the coyote's out there howling," Turner says, howling. "You know, and it's pretty scary."

At the Snowcrest Ranch, Ted Turner is not alone. He keeps company with bison, horses and a stream full of Ruby River trout.

Life is good for Turner. He's not your average old-age pensioner: this most restless of men jets around the world promoting good causes, dreaming up new business ventures, and dropping in on his dozens of properties scattered about the hemisphere.

And now, as he turns 70, he's written his book. After his morning ride, the man who proudly says he never looks back, decided to do just that: to let Ted reflect on Ted.

"I've had the good fortune to have a much more diverse life than most people would, professional sports and television and news and movies," he says.

And he says his personal has been a lot of fun.

Turner burst on the scene when he captained "Courageous," the yacht that won the America's Cup.

But it was his groundbreaking creation of CNN that put Turner indelibly on the map. But, his company's rapid growth and ballooning debt nearly bankrupted him.

"I was gonna go broke if I didn't get things turned around real fast. But I was able to get it refinanced, without government help, I might add, unlike what's going on today, but we made it. But by the skin on our chinny chin chin. And two years later we made a run at CBS, unsuccessful, but we did take a swing," he says.

Instead, Turner went on to create his own broadcasting powerhouse, and when he merged his company with Time Warner in 1996, his status as media visionary was confirmed. "I didn't care what, how much adversity life threw at me. I intended to get to the top," he says.

The adversity started at infancy. Shipped off to boarding school at the age of 4, followed by years of military school for discipline, he says his alcoholic father did everything he could to toughen him up.

"You had a pretty tough father," Safer comments.

"So what. You know, lots of people have tough fathers," Turner replies.

"Well, he beat you up," Safer points out.

"No, he didn't beat me up. He spanked me," Turner says.

Turner says he was spanked with a wire hanger a couple of times, and admits it was traumatic, but says, "He was doing it to make me better."

Asked if he thinks it made him better, Turner says, "I think so."

At age 21, he began working for his father's outdoor advertising business. But shortly after, an event took place that both shaped and shattered Ted Turner: his father committed suicide.

"Were you out to prove something to him even though he was gone?" Safer asks.

"He wanted me to be a big success. And all my life I've tried to be a big success. So his influence was huge," Turner says.

That success is plastered all over the walls of his Atlanta office. CNN made Turner into a statesman of sorts, hobnobbing with world leaders. But he may be best remembered for the impolitic things he has said, insulting Christianity, fellow billionaires, and even the Italians. "Italians, Italians, imagine the Italians at war…They'd rather be involved in crime and just making some wine and having a good time," he once said.

His utter inability to self-censor earned Turner the nickname "The Mouth from the South." But to some it was evidence of true mental instability.

Turner admits he took the drug lithium for a while, but said it had no effect. But that didn't stop his rival Rupert Murdoch from questioning his sanity during their legendary war of words.

Murdoch's newspapers were brutal attacking Turner, calling him nuts. And Turner thinks Murdoch had detectives following him around at times. "At least I think he did. I never had any proof of it."

Turner once said Murdoch was the most dangerous man in the world, but he no longer believes that. "I think George Bush is the most dangerous man in the world," he says. "I've made peace with Rupert. We had lunch together a few months ago. Now there's not anybody I don't like. But after this interview's over, I may not like you."

It's vintage Ted Turner, as was his joy when he agreed to AOL's merger with Time Warner. "I did it as much or more excitement and enthusiasm as I did on that night when I first made love some 42 years ago," he said.

He was now worth $10 billion. But shortly after the merger, Turner was pushed aside by Time Warner brass, even though he was the company's largest individual stockholder. Then the Internet bubble burst and AOL/Time Warner stock went into a free-fall.

Turner lost nearly $10 million a day for two and a half years. Asked if he ever considered getting out of this, he tells Safer, "But my kids were all in the stock, most of my friends were. So I sat there loyally and went down the drain with everybody else."

To the tune of $7 billion. To Turner, it was "Apocalypse Now." His marriage to Jane Fonda was breaking up, a grandchild was gravely ill, and he was jobless. His five children were worried, that like his father, Turner might take his own life.

"He contemplated suicide. And I was really worried when Jane left him, they took away his job the way they did, he was. That was the lowest I'd ever seen him," Turner's daughter Laura remembers.

"He was really depressed and a lot of other things were happening in our family as well. So it was a really, really tough time for him. And he barreled through it," son Rhett tells Safer.

"And he also got help. He got professional help," Laura says.

She says he went to a see a shrink. "And he said he always left his shrink and he cheered his shrink up. He said he would leave him laughing."

Turner admits he spent more time gallivanting around the globe than he did being a father.

"We never sat down for a meal for more than 15 minutes. I can guarantee you," Rhett remembers. "He'd also give the monologue. The conversation was his through the whole dinner."

"Yeah, after a vacation with Dad, you need a vacation," son Teddy jokes.

Recently, Turner says he has become a better father, and feels his relationship with his children is his greatest achievement.

If his kids are his greatest achievement, what is his biggest disappointment?

"I've heard him say his failure of his marriages," Jennie says.

He's been married three times, most famously to actress Jane Fonda, a union that lasted 10 years.

Turner says he and Fonda were happy together for a long time.

Asked what went wrong, Turner says, "It's hard to tell. It obviously was a combination of things."

Asked if he wished that the marriage had managed to survive, Turner tells Safer, "Well it didn't. I mean, there's no point in sittin' around and cryin' about spilt milk. Gotta move on."

Moving on is Turner's mantra. It also put a hex on his marriage to Jane Fonda.

"It's impossible to really be with Ted the way he needs someone to be with him and have any kind of life of your own," Fonda says.

"He's perfectly aware of it. He said to me, 'I hate being alone,'" Safer says.

"He's aware that it makes it hard for the person who's, you know, trying to love him," Fonda says.

"But what's interesting is the moment he's in one place for a couple of days, he's got to move on to somewhere else," Safer remarks.

"Yeah, when you're chased by demons, you have to keep moving," Fonda says.

Though they've been divorced for eight years, they've been in some way inseparable. "You know, if Ted really needed me, I would be there in a blue minute," Fonda says.

"Yeah, I think he misses you a lot," Safer says.

"I think he does," Fonda says, with tears welling up. "I'm not getting emotional because I wish I was still living with him. But, he touches me deeply, deeply. The contradictions that make up Ted Turner."

"They had so much in common. They were like two peas in a pod. You know, they both had their parents commit suicide. They were both overachievers, perfectionists. And I think that they were both at the top of their game when they were together," Turner's daughter Laura says.

Asked if he thinks there's any chance of a reconciliation, Teddy Turner says, "I don't think there'd be any family argument with Jane coming back home. But, you know, but it's not really our choice."

Turner admits being a husband is not his strong suit.

"You have a tough time with monogamy, correct?" Safer asks.

"It's a lot easier now," Turner replies, laughing.

"Now that you're not married, you mean," Safer asks.

"Well it being 70 too," Turner jokes.

Turner now dates several women at once, and they all look remarkably alike. They take turns as traveling companions in his restless wanderings.

And he's as generous as ever with his philanthropy. He famously pledged $1 billion to the UN and has given another half billion or so to causes he believes in.

But lest you think Turner has completely withdrawn from business, welcome to Ted's Montana Grill, home of the bison burger. Turner started the eco-friendly restaurant chain as a way of ensuring the survival of his favorite mammal - both on a bun, and roaming the prairie.

His 50,000 herd roams on only a few of the 27 properties he owns across North and South America. He plans to leave it all to conservation after he's gone.

"When our time's up, it's up," Turner says. "All the money in the world won't buy you one more day."

"So you might as well give it away," Safer remarks.

"Might as well," Turner says,

It's a portrait of a man temporarily at peace: taking a break from his Marathon race with life, catch and release, just like those billions that slipped away.

"Out here I don't have to worry about the $7 billion I lost," he tells Safer.

"Well, $7 billion. It'll make you stop and think, I guess," Safer says,

"You know, you can't cry over spilt milk, as I said before. You gotta press on, my man," Turner says.

Produced by Deirdre Naphin