Grease star Dame Olivia Newton-John died aged 73 on Monday morning from breast cancer.
Hollywood greats have been paying their respects to the musical icon, including her co-star in the classic film, John Travolta who captioned it, ‘Your Danny’ in reference to his character.
While the singer saw massive success in her career, her personal life wasn’t always so easy. From her cancer diagnosis in 1992, the loss of a lover who vanished at sea and her daughter’s struggle with the pressure of having a famous mother, the singer’s journey was punctuated by some difficulties.
However, having dedicated much of her life to breast cancer awareness and raising money for the cause, she, in her second husband John Easterling’s words became ‘a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer.’ Announcing her death on Facebook, he said she passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends at her ranch in southern California.
Newton-John was born in Cambridge in 1948 before moving to Australia aged six. Her father was a British spy during World War Two and her mother was the daughter of the German Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Max Born. She had her heart set on a career in music even when she was a teen and aged 15 won an Australian TV talent contest called Sing, Sing, Sing. She had success with her second single, a cover of Bob Dylan’s If Not For You, which reached the top 10 in the UK and Australia before representing the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Long Live Love in 1974 (when ABBA won).
But her big break came when she played Sandy in the musical Grease, which was the biggest box-office hit of 1978. The role propelled her to superstardom and her character became iconic. “Her spandex trousers in Grease were my inspiration for my ‘Da ya think I’m Sexy’ era,” said singer Rod Stewart who called her “the perfect lady, gorgeous, with great poise and with a certain Aussie sophistication.”
Popstar Kylie Minogue said Newton-John was an inspiration to her and said: “Since I was ten years old, I have loved and looked up to Olivia Newton-John. And, I always will.”
Newton-John met her first husband, actor Matt Lattanzi, on the set of the film Xanadu. They got married in 1984, had their daughter, Chloe in 1986 but got divorced in 1995. The break up came three years after Newton John was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, aged 44. She had a partial mastectomy and chemotherapy but the disease came back, spreading to her shoulder, in 2013 prompting her to undergo more treatment. When the cancer returned for a third time in 2018 the singer announced she’d attempt to tackle it “naturally.”
She set up a charity, the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, which funds research into plant-based medicine and holistic treatments for cancer and has raised millions of pounds. “We are incredibly grateful for the special relationship we had with Olivia for many years. Her generous support and gift provided hope and changed the lives of thousands of cancer patients... She was the light at the end of the tunnel for many, many people,” said the hospital that runs the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne.
Newton-John became a big advocate of medical cannabis and lobbied the Australian government for its use in cancer treatment. Her second husband, John Easterling, founder of Amazon Herb Company, whom she married in 2008, grew medicinal cannabis for her on their ranch to help ease her symptoms. She called it a “healing plant” and said: “Medicinal cannabis is something that should be available to everyone who is going through a chronic illness or pain. It really is a magical miracle plant.”
Before she met her second husband, Newton-John had a nine-year on-off relationship with a cameraman, Patrick McDermott. But in 2005 he vanished at sea under mysterious circumstances that led some to speculate the 48-year-old had faked his own death. For two decades afterwards there were rumours he’d been seen in Mexico and theories that he’d been trying to escape huge debt but the police could never find any evidence he was still alive.
“I don’t think I will ever really be at peace with it,” Newton-John said in an interview about it. “I think there will always be a question mark.”
She married John Easterling at an Inca ritual in Peru in 2008 and tried to put the tragedy behind her. “He was lost at sea, and nobody really knows what happened,” she said in 2016. “It’s human to wonder. Because whenever you go through difficult times, there’s always those concerns. Those are the things in life you have to accept and let go. Of course questions always come up and that’s human. But you know, I live on.”
Elsewhere in her life her daughter struggled with the pressure of growing up in the spotlight. Two years ago she revealed that she’d struggled with depression since she was 15 and suffered an eating disorder. “I think growing up in LA, growing up in the limelight, and growing up around people who have had plastic surgery, and who are all thin. It happens,” she said. “So many kids that I know of have struggled with body dysmorphia or eating disorders. It’s a common thing in Hollywood.”
She said she felt she wasn’t ‘quite enough’ and also revealed she struggled with alcohol and drug dependency in her life. “I was just a child going through a physiological illness and I kind of self-sabotaged because internally I was not well,” she explained. “I didn’t know up from down. I thought ‘How am I going to be a celebrity and be able to handle all the pressures?’”
She said she didn’t blame her mother but that fame “totally messes you up”. “I would never want to be famous or raise a child of my own around the cult of celebrity. It ruins lives,” she said.
Newton-John is survived by her daughter Chloe and her husband John.
Among those paying tribute to her was her Grease co-star John Travolta who said: “My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better. Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the first moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!”
The film’s director Randal Kleiser who remained friends with Newton-John for 40 years said: “She never changed, she was always exactly the way everyone imagines her. She was charming, lovely, warm... There are so many clichés you can say about her, but in her case it was all true.”
Her legacy in the music world will live on and to cancer patients she will always remain an inspiration. Her work in cancer was honoured by the Queen when she was made a Dame in 2020.
In her last interview before her death Newton-John said she felt at peace with the fact she was going to die. saying: “We all know we’re going to die, but I think we spend our lives in denial. It’s extremely personal so it’s hard to put into words. I feel that we are all one thing and I’ve had experiences with spirits and spirit life. I believe there is something that happens.
“I hope the energies of the people you love will be there... I think all the love will be there. I’m sort of looking forward to that, not now, but when it happens.”
