Jim Henson's Daughter Cheryl Says Her Parents 'Always Stayed Supportive of Each Other' (Exclusive)

The new documentary 'Jim Henson Idea Man' shows how Jim and Jane Henson co-created the Muppets — and their separation in the 1980s

Jim Henson's children are uncovering their parents' life together and legacy with help from Ron Howard.

Howard's new documentary Jim Henson Idea Man brings audiences back to the earliest days of the Jim Henson Company, which Jim and his wife Jane Henson co-founded as Muppets, Inc. in the late 1950s. In the film, Howard and the late couple's children detail their parents' successes together and the tensions that led to their separation in 1986.

"It's true that they did not stay together. You know, that's part of the story is that they did not stay together, but they always stayed supportive of each other," Cheryl Henson, who has served as the president of the Jim Henson Foundation since 1992, tells PEOPLE. "And my mom always respected — not just respected. She was in love with my father as an artist, and she was honestly in love with him, period."

Jim and Jane met as college students in 1954 and were already creating Muppets and performing together on television by the time they married in 1959. In Idea Man, the couple's children — Lisa, 64, Brian, 60 and Heather, 53, in addition to Cheryl, 62 — as well as collaborators like Frank Oz detail how the Muppets took the world by storm and how Jane's relationship to the company changed in the years after she and Jim started their family.

Related: Ron Howard Says Muppets Creator Jim Henson Felt He Would 'Not Live to Be an Old Man' (Exclusive)

In the film, Brian recalls that Jim would want to hear about his kids' schoolwork over dinner, while Jane would want to talk about the company, "which was the last thing he wanted to talk about."

Cheryl cites "the fact that we were living in the suburbs and it was an hour and a half commute each way that very often my dad was quite exhausted by the time he got home" as a reason for that tension. "And likewise, my mom felt very isolated because it was such a journey to get into the city in order to be a part of what was happening," she says. "She owned 40% of the company, and yet she really was not given an opportunity to be a part of it [and] be respected as, as a co-owner."

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Jim died at 53 in 1990; Jane died at 78 in 2013, according to The New York Times. In addition to their four surviving children, the couple also shared son John Henson, who died in 2014 at 48.

Related: It's Time to Meet the Muppets: Get to Know 10 Forgotten Characters

Cheryl also tells PEOPLE that Jane was "really interested in the creative aspects of the company" rather than in its business. She notes that her mother also found joy in identifying new talent in puppeteering and training aspiring puppeteers between her work as an art teacher and as a founding member of the Jim Henson Foundation and the National Puppetry Conference.

"She was an amazing mother, but it is hard for any woman not to be able to be both a professional and also a mother at the same time," Cheryl says.

Jim Henson Idea Man is streaming on Disney+ now.

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