COVERSTORY 08.26
Jane Seymour
The Power of an Open Heart
Story by Diana Addison Lyle @di_addison_lyle
Photography by Veronica Sams @ veronicasams
Hair/Makeup: Maxine Christians @maxine_christians
Just as Claude Monet’s paintings lit up the world at a time when beauty, light and optimism were so desperately needed, Jane Seymour’s immense artistry has uplifted the world with her uniquely powerful brush strokes. She has generously shared her vast emotional depth in a lifetime of work that has given us a far better understanding of what it means to be genuinely human. Without love, compassion and connection, the human soul dies, and Jane Seymour has an innate understanding of that. The famously observant Dame Maggie Smith first noticed 17-year-old Jane performing in Dickie Attenborough’s Oh! What a Lovely War and said to her in her imperious voice, “Dear girl. You are NOT going to be in the chorus for very long. You stick out!”
Whether you are watching Jane in the lead role as Natalie Jastrow in War and Remembrance, or as Elise McKenna starring opposite Christopher Reeve in Somewhere in Time, Cathy Ames in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden (for which she won a Golden Globe Award), Maria Callas in The Richest Man Alive (for which she won an Emmy Award), Marie Antoinette in The French Revolution, Wallis Simpson in The Woman He Loved, or, currently, as Harry Wild in Harry Wild (watchable on Acorn/Amazon Prime), Jane’s contributions are steeped in talent and human availability.
One of the offshoots of Jane’s humanistic strength has been her nurturing capacity which was played out compellingly in her seven-year run as the compassionate Dr. Michaela Quinn in Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Audiences lapped up the hugely successful series, and in particular, the character of Dr. Michaela Quinn, whose life was defined by a deep respect for human dignity, medical ethics, and social justice.
75-year-young Jane is the living embodiment of a beautiful field of flowers in a Monet painting. She inspires continual growth even during our hardest times. She wisely says,
“We admire a garden in full bloom but forget the other parts of the story: before that came in the rain, the unseen growth, the changing seasons, and the patience to trust what was happening beneath the surface. What if the season you are in is preparing something beautiful?”
Jane Seymour’s Open Hearts movement has created a groundswell of hope and kindness in the world, and her Open Hearts Foundation is an integral force for good in that movement, one that has achieved so much human healing.
Jane explains the pivotal role that her much-loved mother played in the germination of Open Hearts.
“We’ve just celebrated 15 years of the Open Hearts Foundation Gala and my mother’s life, and her wisdom are very much the inspiration behind it. She was Dutch-born and married and lived in Indonesia on a tea plantation. She had a very abusive husband whom she left. Shortly after that, she was put into a Japanese internment camp. Over 100,000 Dutch nationals living in Indonesia (formerly known as the Dutch East Indies) were rounded up by Japanese forces and held in brutal civilian and POW prison camps between 1942 and 1945. The women and children were held in a separate section, and after the age of 12, the male children were sent to the men’s camps. My mother was put into different locations until her eventual release.”
Jane’s mother’s unflinching determination was patently clear in her next move.
“From there, my mother managed to persuade the personnel on the ships that came to rescue the British from the Japanese camps to take her with them. To this day, I don’t know what she said but we have this most remarkable book, which was mum’s visitors’ book from before the war, and during the war, she hid it in the camps, and she retained it after the war. It even has the most amazing water-color paintings and drawings of people living in the environment. It gives my sisters and I pertinent visuals of the living conditions there.”
With deep respect inherent in her voice, Jane says,
“My mother’s inspiration to all of us was immense. When I did the 1988 miniseries, War and Remembrance, I played the part of Natalie Jastrow, an American Jewish woman trapped in Europe during the Holocaust, and who ended up in the camps. I spoke to my mother about her visiting us on our filming locations; she had the options of visiting us in Rome, Siena, Florence or Paris, and she chose Auschwitz, which staggered me because I was concerned about it eliciting a lot of trauma for her. When we were there filming at 3 in the morning with the train station and the dogs, the atmosphere was hauntingly real. We even had extras on set who were actual survivors from the Holocaust. This was to ensure the historical accuracy of the movie’s content. At one point, mum said she wanted to ‘go back’, and I thought she meant to the hotel, but instead, she said, ‘Indonesia’. This was the first time she’d ever mentioned it. I then got offered a movie called, Keys to Freedom in Malaysia, and I was able to take my mother with me. When we got to Indonesia, we were able to visit two of the camps, and during this time, she had a complete cathartic experience where she was able to let go of it all. The reason I’m relating this story is to emphasize how profound my mother’s wisdom was on my sisters and I. She’d say to us, ‘Darling; everyone has challenges. The instinctual reaction to challenges is to close off your heart and to keep your trauma in a silent place because of shame or fear. But the only way forward, really, is to accept it – even though that’s the hardest thing to do in life. The key is to accept it, open your heart and reach out to others by lending them a helping hand. There’s always someone who has had it tougher than you. Listening and showing compassion to others is so vastly healing all around.’”
I interpreted it as the open heart. When your heart is open, you can give and receive love. I was commissioned to come up with a series of greeting cards with my paintings on them. When I set about painting, I thought deeply about my mother’s message and the appropriateness of it. I painted a single open heart, and later, I connected two and felt that it interpreted my mother’s wisdom
“I interpreted it as the open heart. When your heart is open, you can give and receive love.
I was commissioned to come up with a series of greeting cards with my paintings on them. When I set about painting, I thought deeply about my mother’s message and the appropriateness of it. I painted a single open heart, and later, I connected two and felt that it interpreted my mother’s wisdom.”
“From there I had major art exhibitions every year nationally and in Canada. People loved my work, and that’s when I decided to trademark the image. My mother then had a stroke, and she hadn’t spoken in over seven months. I had been asked to do Dancing with the Stars and because of my mother’s illness, I planned to decline the offer until, to my absolute astonishment, mum spoke for the first time in seven months by saying ‘YES!’ That convinced me to move forward. I had a necklace made to wear during the show to honor my mother. Shortly thereafter, I happened to meet a representative from Kay Jewelers who saw my open-heart necklace, and he asked if I would be interested in creating a line of open-hearts jewelry. Evidently, the open-hearts line disrupted the diamond industry, and its retail sale amounted to just under $1 billion in ten years.”
“So that’s when we started the Open Hearts Foundation because I wanted my mother’s message to carry forward meaningfully. Through strategic funding, volunteer engagement, peer learning, and storytelling support, we help organizations that align with our mission of empowering those who turn adversity into possibility. They gain visibility within their community, and supporters frequently step in to match our grants, sometimes reaching seven times the original amount. We also have a major volunteer program in which my daughter, Katie Flynn, is heavily involved.”
Jane’s resolute recognition of the healing power of the arts is beautifully described here:
“We work with Urban Voices Project, which is a choir on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Founded by classical musician and educator Leeav Sofer, the Urban Voices Project harnesses the healing power of music to support individuals experiencing or recovering from homelessness across Los Angeles. Its flagship Performance Ensemble is a non-audition choir composed of Skid Row residents, artists, and advocates who use communal singing to foster trust, dignity, and community while raising awareness about homelessness and mental health challenges. Open Hearts Foundation proudly supports Urban Voices Project through grantmaking and volunteer engagement and recently, my daughter Katie rallied 12 volunteers to stand alongside Leeav and his team at their annual C’Mon, Sing! celebration. Together, they hosted the afterparty for more than 60 Skid Row community members, musicians, and volunteers. Showing up in that way, shoulder to shoulder with the community, is exactly what fuels her passion.”
“By supporting various initiatives,” Jane continues with absolute conviction, “we also create a successful template that can be emulated in other parts of the country – creating a powerful movement – all from our Open Hearts Foundation. That is what I am so proud of. This past year, we’ve supported sixteen organizations. Although our foundation proudly supports many different types of organizations, our recent focus has centered on mental health and the powerful ways the arts are helping people navigate and heal through their challenges. At our recent annual Foundation Gala, I asked our audience to raise their hand if they or a member of their family had never been affected by mental health challenges. Not one hand went up. We have to mitigate the stigma attached to mental health issues so that we can access those who need help.”
“When people as famous as Lady Gaga and Johnny Cash come out and talk about their mental health struggles,” Jane emphasizes, “it takes the shame away so that others can step forward honestly without worrying about stigmas. The brilliantly talented artist, Vincent van Gogh, had huge mental challenges, and he created his masterpiece The Starry Night with its swirling pre-dawn strokes depicting the view from his asylum room in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in France. 90% of people who are incarcerated are there because of mental health issues and addiction. That is a cold-stone fact. In Napa Valley on a horse ranch, John Muir has a program where people with serious mental health issues are welcomed. Equine therapy is profoundly powerful for people trapped inside their mental constraints. Christopher Reeve did so much in his lifetime to get funding and information on spinal injuries. Then, Glen Campbell with Alzheimer’s. He allowed himself to be filmed when he was in the worst phases of this terrible mental and physical disease. We did his documentary called I’ll Be Me and what’s interesting is that he did multiple concerts while he was in the severe throes of Alzheimer’s. We’ve got to be open and honest about these challenges instead of hiding them away.”
We started the Open Hearts Foundation because I wanted my mother’s message to carry forward meaningfully. Through strategic funding, volunteer engagement, peer learning, and storytelling support, we help organizations that align with our mission of empowering those who turn adversity into possibility. They gain visibility within their community and supporters frequently step in to match our grants, sometimes reaching seven times the original amount. We also have a major volunteer program in which my daughter, Katie Flynn, is heavily involved
“Isolation breeds more mental health issues,” she says. “The iPhone generation were forced into remote learning and young people today don’t interact in a healthy manner. There’s been a disruption of the natural ways in which humans meet.”
Jane has just completed shooting the 5th Season of Harry Wild, which was recently released on Acorn/Amazon Prime. It was shot in Ireland in and around Dublin where there’s an amazing pipeline of seriously talented young Irish actors who come straight out of drama school.
It is so delightfully evident how much Jane has loved doing Harry Wild and audiences around the world have been waiting anticipatorily for this summer’s release of Season 5.
“I play the magical role of Harry Wild,” Jane enthuses. “She’s a professor of English Literature, so she’s smart, articulate, and she solves crimes utilizing the benefits of history and literature. The cozy crime series is brilliantly written and it’s about this strong woman who is irreverent, witty and unconventional. I can’t imagine life without Harry Wild, and we already have such great ideas for a 6th season, so we are really hoping that viewers are as enamored with it as we are. It’s quite different from Murder She Wrote but it’s certainly part of the genre.
Jane highlights some of the most memorable characterizations in her vast repertoire of work:
“Scarlet Pimpernel, for sure, stands out”, she says reflectively. “The French Revolution in which I played Marie Antoinette; I found the sheer depth of acting talent in that movie so inspiring. East of Eden is well worth watching. Enslavement – a true story about why the British government decided not to support the south during the Civil War – was a valuable historical film. It’s the true story about an English actress who came with her family to tour in Philadelphia, hoping to make enough money to survive. She ended up inadvertently marrying a man who turned out to be one of the biggest slave owners. Another piece of work I’m proud of: A Passion for Justice: The Hazel Brannon Smith Story. She won the Pulitzer Prize for fighting racism in the south. The Woman He Loved, where I played Wallis Simpson, was another standout for me.”
“People have given me such thoughtful gifts through the years,” Jane recounts. “Someone gave me an Open Hearts picture in which they placed the 140 faces of every character I’ve ever played in movies. When you consider it, I did War and Remembrance for nine months and Dr Quinn for seven years.”
“One of the greatest compliments ever made to me,” Jane remembers, “was by Daphne du Maurier who said that my acting was the closest she’d ever seen to any of her characters in her famous books.”
I enquire if Jane enjoyed working with Michael Caine on Jack the Ripper.
“He’s absolutely delightful to work with and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Before the cameras rolled, though, I was warned that he only does one take. He doesn’t do re-dos, so if you are acting with him, you can’t warm up. You have to bring it all in during the first take! Actually, I heard that the reason he does this is because he always wants to have lunch with his wife.”
We talk about Lassiter with Tom Selleck, and Jane says,
“That was interesting because the character I was supposed to play was that of a bad actress. I said that we probably should change that to a bad or wounded dancer, and that’s why I ended up dancing in that movie. The choreographer that hired me for English Panto when I was 15 years old worked with me on that, and also in Dickie Attenborough’s Oh! What a Lovely War.”
We discuss the Attenborough family, and Jane’s respect for them is immediately evident:
“The whole Attenborough family is phenomenal,” she confirms. “I was part of Michael Attenborough’s friends’ group, and he is Richard (Dickie) Attenborough’s son and David Attenborough’s nephew. I was 16 years old back then and I recall Michael focusing on re-arranging the vinyl records at my house! Then, when I turned 17 years and I was in Oh! What a Lovely War, Michael came to visit his father on set, and I was just a member of the chorus, and he came up to me with a diary and said, ‘do you like this?’ and I replied affirmatively. He ended up filling up my empty diary with theatre tickets. Michael and I realized we’d met before and we had a lot of mutual friends, so we ended up dating, then married way too young, and we’ve managed to remain really close friends ever since. I got to know Dickie really well and it was an absolute privilege to be in his orbit. He taught me so much. He truly was an amazing mentor and wonderful person.”
Scarlet Pimpernel, for sure, stands out. So, too, does The French Revolution in which I played Marie Antoinette; I found the sheer depth of acting talent in that movie so inspiring. East of Eden is well worth watching. Enslavement – a true story about why the British government decided not to support the south during the Civil War – was a valuable historical film. Another piece of work I’m proud of: A Passion for Justice: The Hazel Brannon Smith Story. She won the Pulitzer Prize for fighting racism in the south. The Woman He Loved, where I played Wallis Simpson, was another standout for me
The light-hearted, fun work Jane has done includes Jane the Virgin, The Wedding Crashers, The Kominsky Method, and of course, James Bond’s Live and Let Die.
“Working with Roger Moore was a lot of fun,” Jane says, “and a lot of stories surrounding that movie will be in my memoir which is due to be released in April 2027.”
Jane has succeeded in every sphere including the most demanding Shakespearian productions. I ask if, when she was a teenager, she had mapped out her future. A gifted dancer, she experienced an injury early on that ended a future professional dancing career.
“I went to the Arts Educational School in London at age 13 on a partial scholarship as a ballerina. Half of the school day was academic, and the other half was vocational. Even if you studied classical ballet, you were required to do drama, history of theatre and a host of other subjects. We all competed in drama even if we were originally ballet students. I tended to do rather well, and I often won adjudicated dramatic performances. After my dancing injury I was re-purposed as a chorus girl. I did a lot of theatre and because I could sing as well, I was sent out to do little gigs on BBC and commercials. I did the English pantomime at Windsor, and I was 15 at the time when they asked me to be understudy to the leading lady. I learned the whole play and later got picked by Dickie Attenborough for Oh! What a Lovely War. So that’s how my acting career started. But an important moment did happen on set. On the third day of shooting, Dickie’s agent signaled me out and said to Dickie, ‘she’s going to be a star.’ I only heard that after the fact. From thereon, my career took off.”
There’s a very famous picture taken of Jane Seymour being kissed by Freddie Mercury – taken at LIVE AID 1985 when they asked her to wear a bridal gown at the big fashion show with David and Elizabeth Emmanuele – the designers of Princess Diana’s wedding dress. Jane explains:
“They tended to do period-style designs, and I was singled out as the perfect muse for their creations. I was presented to Queen Elizabeth II at the premiere of The Four Feathers in one of their first designs, and I became good friends with the Emmanueles.”
Jane possesses the valuable capacity of being able to appreciate the great and sparkling moments in her life, as well as the capacity to overcome significant life challenges.
She says gratefully,
“I’ve had some significant things happen to me in my life and my children all comment on them. St Catherine’s Court in England was one of my former homes. It was a 15th-century Tudor-Jacobean manor near Bath, and it served as the recording location for Radiohead’s groundbreaking 1997 album OK Computer.”
I ask Jane to recount the day she was made an Order of the Knighthood – and received her OBE (Order of the British Empire Award) by Queen Elizabeth II. She says self-deprecatingly,
“Yes, I’m a pre-dame – not an actual Dame like Dame Maggie Smith! (Laughter ensues.) I’m totally ok with that. It was a great honor to receive this award from Queen Elizabeth. I found her to be very knowledgeable. The equerry would inform her who she was about to meet, but what was interesting is that we immediately had horses as our mutual passion, and she knew that I had ridden side saddle in one of my movies.”
I was never born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and lots of things didn’t go my way when I was young. In the end, many things did go my way. People often ask me if I’d do my life differently if I were to have it over again, and while nobody wants to go through pain and loss again, the fact is that I learned so much from the sadder parts of my life. I wouldn’t be the person I am today had I not had those so-called negative experiences. Most importantly, my mother would not have been the most remarkable woman that she was if she hadn’t found a way to process the extraordinary trauma that she encountered
“My sisters and I have always been very positive people,” she says with vocal strength. “I’ve always looked at the glass half-full. I learned in life that every time something went horribly wrong, it needed to happen before something really fantastic came along. My whole book is really all about that. I was never born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and lots of things didn’t go my way when I was young. In the end, many things did go my way. People often ask me if I’d do my life differently if I were to have it over again, and while nobody wants to go through pain and loss again, the fact is that I learned so much from the sadder parts of my life. I wouldn’t be the person I am today had I not had those so-called negative experiences. Most importantly, my mother would not have been the most remarkable woman that she was if she hadn’t found a way to process the extraordinary trauma that she encountered.”
The most talented artists find healing in their ability to create beauty. Van Gogh certainly turned to it when he hit rock bottom, and Claude Monet – Jane’s soul brother – lit up the world with his artistic genius when the world was very dark. Jane’s artistic repertoire is multi-faceted. She was a brilliant ballet dancer until age 13 when her injury truncated her hopes and dreams. Later, when her life took an enormously bad turn in the 1990s, she immersed herself in the vitally healing power of painting and produced some of her finest work – much of which has been exhibited in the USA and Canada. It is in nature and art that Jane has always found her peace and so her 2001 visit to Monet’s garden and home in Giverny, France was an epic highlight of her life that she paint-stroked into perpetuity.
Ben Stevenson was a lifelong dance mentor, teacher and close friend of Jane’s. He recently passed away and Jane made a promise to always carry his passion and kindness forward. Her wisdom is profound as she recounts this inestimably valuable episode in her life because it was such a powerful watershed moment:
“I had a near-death experience in my life. I realized then that the only thing you take with you at the hour of your death is the love you’ve shared. Ben and I would have long conversations about this. I was flying to see him – two days before his 90th birthday – and my boyfriend, John Zambetti, had written the most beautiful song about me entitled, ‘She’s Just a Girl’. It’s on Spotify. Ben Stevenson got a beautiful young dancer with beautiful choreography to dance to ‘She’s Just a Girl’ and I have that with me for perpetuity. One day I intend to learn and dance it in Ben’s honor.”
Jane’s relationship with ER physician and musician John Zambetti is steeped in so many life-affirming qualities, and she describes the profound happiness he has brought into her life.
“It’s extraordinary,” she says with visible emotion. “I wake up every morning thinking how exceedingly fortunate I am to be in such a great relationship with somebody who is wise, loving, kind, fun, funny, and so incredibly talented, and now, I’ve become his muse. He’s produced three or four albums in the last 18 months. John is on fire writing the most beautiful songs and a lot of them are inspired by me or our life together or things we’ve talked about. My family all say they’ve never seen me quite this happy. I know I’m really blessed, and the timing for us was perfect. We both needed to go through what we did in order to come together at this stage in our lives.”
The world would be a significantly better place if we all became inspired by Jane Seymour’s Open Heart and that heart’s necessity for love, compassion and human connection.
If anyone would like to visit the extraordinarily special Art of Jane Seymour, you can visit (by appointment) Coral Canyon Publishing Art Gallery in Westlake Village California. Email susan@coralcanyonpublishing.com for appointments.
IG: @janeseymour
