Jane Seymour on The Meaning of Life With Joe Duffy, 2021

[Music] cadel and take it by the hand surge through salty Sands at Street of beach or Tiptoe Through History at Caro Moore conquer new skills at strand Hill and make memories you'll Savor forever keep discovering sgo what's it all about why are we here is there a god what happen happens when we die in this series I'm talking to public figures about these questions like me few of them claim to be religious experts but all of them have at times had cause to think about the meaning of [Music] life Jane zour actor writer painter um screen Legend it's an honor to be sitting here with you uh in Dublin for uh the meaning of life do you believe in God I I think I believe in God in in my own very unique way okay um I do not um belong to or have any affiliation to any organized um religion uh but I absolutely believe that there is something greater than all of us and I also realize that we are specs specs in the universe and and um I do believe that we all have Spirits okay and I feel the spirit whether you call it the spirit or the soul or whatever you call it is part of who we are but this body is like a vehicle like a car and our spirit is within so whether you speak to your spirit within or in the universe yeah um um for me I I see what would be thought of as God in in in the beauty of nature um in the universe in the good of people so I I see God in a different kind of way your childhood was that was there religious formation there just to begin with that angle on I'm the eldest of three girls um my father had survived World War II uh in the RAF uh his family a lot of them had been murdered they were Jewish um in Bergen bson and uh trena my father actually opened the gates of Bergen bellson and found three of his cousins one of whom afterwards couldn't live without her family who'd all been murdered and so she took her own life oh my God so she he met my mother after the war my mother had had a completely different experience she was Dutch Protestant as all Dutch most Dutch people are um had lived in Indonesia on a Tea Plantation and uh had had a very abusive marriage and had escaped from that only then to be incarcerated for three and a half years in a Japanese um interma Camp because she was a Dutch native and women and um children and boys under the age of 12 were all put in these camps so she was in the camps three and a half years survived that found her way to England met my father and so I came from uh I suppose a family of survivors wow your mother MAA um she's in a Japanese concentration camp effectively basically yeah in so far as you could ever answer this question how did it affect her almost all her friends that survived all of them decided that when and if they ever survived and if they ever had children they wanted their homes to be open to one another if they were ever lucky enough to have that and so as a young child my sisters and I we used to have a rail pass and we go to all these places in Holland and there would be her Catholic friends her Protestant friends her whatever I mean these were and what we all had in common was our our mothers had all been in the camp together so she used to say that if you can accept the unacceptable open your heart and reach out in some way to help someone else you would have purpose and that's what she did in the camps she nursed all the way through the camp she had a little bit of Red Cross training and she helped other people and so that was who she was and so I think that really impacted us growing up you know our house was full of people and my mother was always helping and my father always helping other people so that was what what we grew up with but but on another level what did your mother think of those who imprisoned her the ja Japanese well that's a very interesting question because she was terrified obviously during the war and after the war my father said that she would have nightmares and literally scream and just have the most terrible terrible nightmares every night she could not look at anyone or anything Japanese and my father's great love in life of course was Japanese art he loved Japanese art all he wanted to do was to visit Japan So eventually I think in 1970 my mother decided she was going to Brave it and go and she got on the airplane and I've never forgotten it she said darling I looked around and these weren't the same Japanese these these were different kind of people and she fell in love with the culture she fell in love with the people you know inexplicable horrible horrendous things happened during the war my parents saw it but they both were able to MH forgive and move forward and how did it affect your father I'm that image of him arriving at ban bson and discovering that his own relatives had been there and most of them had perished the effect on him actually before he died I was asking him about his life I I said do do you remember what's like the most important thing that one of the most important ever happened in your life he said watching you filming the selection sequence in aitz or war in remembrance war and remebrance he said that just reminded me of everything of Bergen bson of what happened to my cousins what happened to my family and um he said it was so important because he didn't want the world to forget that that had happened how did that affect him and his religious beliefs my father had no religious beliefs he was raised um in a Jewish household so there are a lot of Jews who are cultural Jews they don't actually believe in God funnily enough they um but they do believe in in their culture what were the values in the house were they we we see what we did is my father and my mother wanted us to experience all religions okay okay so my father was a doctor in a part of London where there were a lot of Indians and pakistanis those were most of his patients and he wanted us to learn about all religion and then choose for ourselves what were you like as a child Jame with all these fantastic influences and openness around you oh there was food Galore from different countries there were people from different countries we were putting on plays which my father would write and or they would write and we were always performing and dancing and singing and um it was a very creative environment the you father mother they they obviously had values were they rooted in what the Ten Commandments or were where what would I would say their values were were spot on to the Ten Commandments absolutely yes I mean they just didn't call them the Ten Commandments I think I used to hear things like do unto others as you would most like done to yourself I would hear my father say you can only ever be your own best um your own best your own best yeah and uh you know and my mother really instilled in us that purpose was everything and forgiveness was everything and that you had to learn to love yourself because unless you could love yourself you couldn't possibly give or receive love were you interested for example as a child in your in your father's profession reached the top of I did actually watch surgery from the time I was 10 no yes I was allowed in to watch surgery I I think I saw and you didn't faint or no because when I was very little my father never wanted us to be afraid of blood so I grew up in and around hospitals I had a microscope at 7 and of course it helped for Dr Quinn Because by the same time I did Dr Quinn um I knew that my father's pet hate in life was watching television and watching Dr kildair or whatever television shows about a doctor and realizing in the first minute that a he knew exactly what the ailment was and B they did it all wrong so I I when I did Dr Gwenn I said okay we are going to talk to the Smithsonian Institute we're going to do this right so we did we actually did it right well let's go into your career then how did you how did you did you want to be an actress from no I wanted to be a ballerina and I got spotted as a dancer in a movie when I was 17 by Richard atenor and his agent and then you got the role in the Bond movie after a bunch a bunch of other roles but yes and I got the role in the Bond movie when I was 20 and then I was sort of dubbed Bond woman um but I was playing a virgin and because I've been so well brought up I was sort of The Last of a Dying species and then when you Dr Quinn Medicine Woman came at a really welcome is that the best way of time in your life what what was well I had been married to a man called Flynn nice Irish name and uh had two children with him and he was one of the top business managers one of the top financial consultants for people in Show Business okay and um one day I realized something was wrong and I found out he'd been unfaithful and at which point I found out that he had lost all my money left me 9 million in the red and so I was penous homeless had two kids to take care of and called up my agent and I said look I have to work yesterday he said what do you mean I said anything I will do anything and he called all the um all the uh different networks and said Jane said she'd do anything do you have anything and one of them said we have something starts tomorrow and and she could do it it's called Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and I read it and I fell in love with it and I started the next day and then it became a huge success we we we were in 98 countries I think we still are I mean I met um president gorbachov who literally was like kissing me go oh doin and I believe that my interpretation of God gave me that gift at that time and I think it is pretty extraordinary that exactly the moment that I needed something to save me emotionally financially and in every way was literally given to me on a plate and isn't it uncanny that my father taught me medicine my father had me medicine my whole life my father's belief system was very much you know the way Dr Quinn was yeah why was I given that gift so so every day that I'd go on the set of Dr Quinn I'd kind of look up and I'd go thanks I called we called him Papa PE it's a long story but yeah but you say thanks to your dad I'd say thanks to my dad get ready for more with Sky stream Sky Broadband and Netflix I always have a memorable time so that's more of this how delightful to see you all with more of this welcome to the world of spycraft lots more of this this is extremely good news and definitely more of this and it's all powered by super reliable Sky full fiber Broadband get Sky stream Sky Broadband and Netflix that's more value for only €50 a month search Sky deals whether it's crooked gummy gappy or Practically Perfect your smile makes you you now make it whiter in just one day oral be clinical intensive whitening has unique ionic technology that lifts stains and prevents new ones because iconic Smiles deserve ionic whitening that everyone loves clinical intensive whitening from Oral B wh a teeth in one day Club Card accepted Tesco Club Card the power to more no yes can I get the butter no get ready for back to school at superv value with great offers like selected meat ranges three for 10 yearo selected Nestle and Kellogg cereal now half price and Cadbury Nestle and mcvi selected ranges three for5 plus save even more with weekly vouches on the real rewards app make real savings at superv value [Music] for over 60 years the credit union has been trusted in the heart of over 500 communities created not for profit but for better reasons for living for families for futures for homes for dreams for today and tomorrow the credit union for you not Prophet tell me about the experience when you were on a set and you did you nearly die or did you die Jane zore apparently according to the doctors I did die I lost my life I was um playing Maria callus in a movie about Onasis I was in Spain in Madrid at the time and I called production on the Saturday I said look I'm really not well I think I need to see a doctor okay the doctor came he said she needs two weeks rest they said no we need a Monday so uh they decided to give me an injection of um an antibiotic they went away the nurse came to do it male nurse he injected me and immediately I knew something was wrong I got what's called anaphylactic shock no so basically what I remember is my heart started racing like really really fast and then it went dead silent and before that it was like something's wrong something's wrong and then it was peace the most amazing piece like like in a full meditation I saw the white light I thought gosh you know that's very compelling and then somehow I looked down and I realized I was looking down and I could see me and I just said whoever whatever I please let me get back in my body I want I want to raise my children that's all I could think about and I always tell people is that especially wealthy people you take nothing with you okay you take with you the love youve shared in your life not necessarily you know a marriage or it's like any moment where you have connected with another human being that there was a real sense of connection and love and the difference you've made and that's it that's what you take with you I realize that you know you take care of this vehicle this is like a car you know if it needs an oil change you give it an oil change and you don't give it bad petrol you give it the good stuff if you possit the gang um Meanwhile your spirit who is who you are MH needs to be taken care of too and you have no fear of death well it doesn't hurt it hurts those you leave behind yeah and I don't want to die no I I'm grabbing onto every moment of life you know as much as I can and well take us in to the open heart so that jewelry you're wearing that's all from the hand of Jan he all from the hand of Jane so I designed this one neace just hold that for a sec because a broken heart is an open heart and when you hold the symbol there's sharp edges on that yes and corves and there can be very sharp edges in life exactly and so this really represents um the ability ility to to move through life and be able to deal with Challenge and at the same time realize that by helping others you will help yourself that's basically what it comes down to so but how does the Open Heart deal with catastrophe Jane you mentioned about discovering not that not just that your husband had a different life it seems how do you deal with that catastrophe well I have a friend who says stuff happens stuff happens and my mother you know who said you know in life there will always be challenge depends on how you look at it no one comes out of this alive and no one comes out of it scot-free you know some have it worse than others but how do you deal with that kind of whether it's betrayal or it's health issues or it's a loss or you know it's always one of those right you have to accept it and the hardest thing in life is acceptance yeah that is the hardest thing you can ever do and if you can accept yeah then you can open up then you can let others in yeah you can share what you've had to accept maybe they are now trying to learn how to accept it so you can share your wisdom or at least your compassion and maybe you can help them and they by helping them they are helping you so that's what the Open Heart means to me is forgiveness a big part of your life that seems to be because you keep talking about your ex their present I've had to let go of stuff I cannot live in the past I cannot you know so I so I was betrayed in whatever way I choose to look upon keeping the good moments the children we had the love we shared and do you know what I'm friends with all of them now okay yeah I spoke to my most recent ex-husband yesterday at Great length about our children and and the other ones had a lot of health issues the one that lost all the money and he's never been able to say sorry but do you think he needs he does need to say sorry it would be nice yes but the craziest thing happened on my 70th birthday his daughter my our daughter Katie contacted all my friends without me knowing and said is there something a memory you have of of mom or something you want to say for her 70th and her father said listen I want you to play this for your mom and listen to her John vver wrote a song called I'm sorry and my S my daughter and I sat there and we listened to this thing on our iPhone and we both literally had waterfalls waterfalls of of of tears and we looked at one another and it was like the whole thing washed away yeah and it was oh my goodness that is the only way and the only time that he knew how to say he was sorry and I'm crying now think about because how hard it must have been for him to not be able to say it hard for us to have to live with it but you know you have to let go H really hard to do yeah but I choose to remember the love that we shared yeah and now we we we're all together as a family again isn't that crazy and do you believe in the afterlife I don't know I mean I I saw a white light yeah I don't know where it goes to I um was never given that story but I have many friends who do you know believe in it you believe in angels I believe that angels as defined in the dictionary when I looked it up last on Messengers yeah I do know that when you when somebody does something for you and they don't even realize the impact it has on you at that precise moment that to me they are an angel they they've done something that they had no idea they did something but they don't know how profoundly it impacted me that so I feel that you can ignite the angel within okay okay so I think what I'm we're getting down to here is is everything Godlike and spiritual out there or can some of it reside within our own spirit and we just have to find a way to tap into it and allow it to do the good things that we know are written about in many cultures that's if I have to explain it that's that's that's how I see it and having actually separated from my body I know that the spirit the soul the spirit of who I am the essence of me is very much currently you know inside this body but could quite easily not be here but it will I will continue in some form I believe and Jane what has challenged you most in life so far uh I would have to say betrayal I don't do betrayal I just I just don't do it very well and and the problem is that it will manifest in me as a fear of Abandonment and then if you fear abandonment then you kind of set it up so you abandon before you're abandoned so it's nasty little cycle uh highly unrecombined why why does somebody need someone else why not me what's what's wrong with me you know did I do something wrong did I say something wrong you know if I done something differently or why didn't I notice how stupid was I not to know when everyone else knew I mean you can come up with a million reasons to get depressed and angry and hate yourself I mean it's very easy to hate yourself it's much harder to love yourself and I think what you have to do is you have to turn it on a dime and you just say you know what maybe that person has a problem maybe that person doesn't deserve me maybe I picked this person for the wrong reason and maybe I have enough within me to be happy I don't need to have another person or that other person and their issues and their problems in my life and so then it's letting go what are you most proud of so far I don't know I'm a work in progress I mean I'm still trying and I don't know um I I'm I'm proud of creating beautiful children who are loving and thoughtful and have really great morality and who care about others and who will make a difference in the world I that is that is the something I'm very very proud of um I am proud of being able to not hang hang on to the negative and to be able to move forward in life and I'm a walkth walk person so people say you know do you practice what you preach I said I'm not preaching I'll just walk and if you like my walk and you want to walk along there with me fine but I'm not going to tell you you should I'm not going to make you do it my way that's just what I'm doing for me it works for me if it works for you as you would say grand grand do you believe in heaven and hell no I don't really I I I believe that well what is I mean how do you define Heaven I mean I I know people that you know and and are you the age you are when you die or are you a newborn baby which part of your life I mean how do you have a body or are you a spirit I do believe the spirit exists the soul the spirit whatever that is I do believe there is some a higher power so if you want to call it God um absolutely there is something definitely greater than me or anyone I've met God is there to show us how we can love one another and help one another and so and and and love love is everything love is as John lendon says love is all there is love it is about love and there is so much hate that comes from people's very specific um following of a Doctrine what I can't stand is that that it has been used as a weapon of hate and of you're not the same as me therefore you die well medically you died yes if you do get to the say which you will we all do they say AG where you do die and you go to the perly gates if they're there what would you say to to God I would say please do me a favor and stop people from killing one another in your name and if I am worthy or you think I'm worthy of being in this environment that I might be invited to I wouldn't let you down well Jane zour thank you for opening your heart and talking to us about the meaning of life thank you [Music]