Gloria Steinem’s Final Netflix Interview Airs Following Her Death at 92
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Netflix has released the final interview of feminist icon Gloria Steinem as part of its "Famous Last Words" series, which airs posthumous conversations with notable figures. The episode follows Steinem's death at 92 in New York on 3 September 2026, and was filmed in February 2025 by executive producer Brad Falchuk, who described her as "the steady heartbeat of a revolution." Rather than focusing solely on her public role as a spokeswoman for the feminist movement, the interview presents Steinem as a lifelong campaigner for justice, speaking candidly about her personal life, family, the internal politics of feminism and her regrets.
In the conversation, Steinem discusses the shared origins of sex- and race-based caste systems, her interest in Indigenous cultures, and the importance of organising across different groups to achieve equality, before concluding with a direct, unedited message to camera. The series, based on the Danish format Det Sidste Ord, uses remotely operated cameras to create an intimate setting free of public pressure, and previously featured figures including Jane Goodall and Eric Dane. It is executive produced by Falchuk and Mikkel Bondesen, with showrunner David Friedman.
- Netflix aired Gloria Steinem's posthumous "Famous Last Words" interview after her death at 92
- Filmed in February 2025, it covers her life, regrets and feminist movement's internal politics
- Episode ends with Steinem's direct, unedited final message to camera
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Steinem's death caps a life spent shaping the modern feminist movement, from her early journalism to co-founding Ms. magazine and helping organise national marches for women's rights. She became one of the most recognisable public faces of feminism in America over more than five decades, though the movement itself was never a single, unified voice, and she often spoke about tensions and disagreements within it.
Netflix's "Famous Last Words" is a documentary series that sits down with well-known figures for a final, wide-ranging interview, released after their death. Steinem's episode was filmed months before she died, alongside earlier instalments featuring the primatologist Jane Goodall and actor Eric Dane, giving audiences a reflective, first-person account rather than a conventional obituary or tribute.
The interview matters because it offers Steinem's own words on her life, family and the internal politics of feminism, rather than assessments made by others after her death. It adds a personal, retrospective layer to how her legacy and the wider history of the feminist movement are understood and discussed.
Full account
Netflix has released the latest instalment of its posthumous interview series Famous Last Words, this time built around a conversation with the feminist campaigner and writer Gloria Steinem, who died on 2 September at the age of 92. In keeping with the show's format, the episode was made available on the day her death was confirmed, continuing a pattern established by the series' two earlier subjects. Steinem was interviewed at length by the actor and producer Brad Falchuk in February 2025, with the recording kept private until now so that it could stand as one of her final public statements.
The series works by filming interviews with well-known figures behind closed doors, using remotely operated cameras so that no crew are present in the room with the subject, and then holding the footage back until after that person has died. Each episode ends with the interviewee addressing the camera directly to leave a closing message, and accounts of the Steinem episode describe her using that moment to encourage people to keep sharing their own stories as a way of understanding one another. Beyond that closing address, the wider interview reportedly ranges across the origins of gender and racial hierarchies, her engagement with Indigenous cultures, and her long-standing argument that movements for equality need to organise across different communities rather than in isolation. She is also said to have spoken candidly about her personal life, her family and the internal disagreements that shaped the feminist movement over the decades, along with reflections on her own regrets.
Steinem's death was widely marked given her decades at the centre of American feminism, including her role in founding Ms. magazine and the Women's Action Alliance, her 2015 memoir My Life on the Road, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to her by Barack Obama in 2013. Falchuk, who also serves as an executive producer on Famous Last Words, described her as having carried the momentum of a long-running social movement while, in the private setting of the interview, appearing to him more as someone quietly considering the value of human connection. He characterised her as still urging others to keep pushing forward even in what turned out to be her final recorded reflections.
Famous Last Words is adapted from the Danish programme Det Sidste Ord and is produced by Falchuk and Mikkel Bondesen through Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, together with the Banijay-owned production company BSNA, David Goldberg and showrunner David Friedman, with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts also credited as a production partner and custodian of the show's archive. Steinem becomes the third participant to have an episode released, following earlier instalments built around the primatologist Jane Goodall, who died in October, and the actor Eric Dane. The episode is now streaming on Netflix.
Where outlets differ
One report states Steinem died on 2 September, while another describes her death as occurring on a Wednesday and a third simply says 'yesterday' relative to its own publication — the exact day of the week is not consistently pinned down across the sources.
Only one account gives extensive biographical detail on Steinem's career, including Ms. magazine, the Women's Action Alliance, her memoir and her Presidential Medal of Freedom, and full production credits including the Kennedy Center's involvement — the others mention the interview and its themes with far less biographical framing.
One outlet notes that the passages published from her closing message urge people to tell their own stories, offering a specific quotation, whereas the others describe the closing-message segment only in general terms without quoting it directly.
One report begins to note that this Netflix interview, despite being billed as her final one, was apparently not actually the last conversation she gave before her death, but the source text is cut off before explaining further — the other reports do not raise this point at all.
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