Returning the favor. Olivia Newton-John opened up about Kelly Preston’s secret cancer battle and how she has been there for John Travolta following the actress’ death.
“We are in contact, and I send my love and support as often as I can,” the singer, 72, told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published on Wednesday, October 7, noting that the family is “coping as well as you can imagine.”
Newton-John has battled cancer three times and shared her story along the way. Meanwhile, Preston chose to keep her health struggles private. The Jerry Maguire star died in July at age 57.
“She was a very beautiful person, inside and out, and was beautiful to look at,” the Xanadu actress said of Preston. “But she had a gentle spirit and I just feel so, so much for John and the children. It’s hard to put into words.”
As for Travolta’s grief, Newton-John added that he must process it in his own way. “Loss is loss, and to lose your mother and your wife is an incredibly difficult thing, and it takes a long time,” she explained. “But ultimately it’s a private journey and I respect that for them.”
The actor, 66, confirmed Preston’s death in July. “It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer,” he wrote via Instagram. “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many. My family and I will forever be grateful to her doctors and nurses at MD Anderson Cancer Center, all the medical centers that have helped, as well as her many friends and loved ones who have been by her side. Kelly’s love and life will always be remembered.”
Travolta concluded that he planned to take “some time to be there for my children” and asked that fans “forgive me in advance if you don’t hear from us for a while.”
The couple tied the knot in September 1991 and are parents of daughter Ella, 20, and son Benjamin, 9. Their son Jett died in 2009 at the age of 16.
Travolta supported Newton-John, whom he starred alongside in the 1978 musical Grease, amid her own bouts of cancer. “Amazing. Technically seems impossible,” he exclusively told Us Weekly in August 2019 of how his longtime friend handled her illness. “And she’s pulling it off like I’ve never seen anybody [do].”
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