Olivia Newton-John's family nicknamed her Pollyanna. There are good reasons for this.
Relentlessly positive, her trademark upbeat optimism was an approach to her life that Olivia carried with her to the end.
"I think every day is a blessing," she once said. But despite the success of her singing in her early years, her worldwide fame, and her bubbly demeanor, Olivia was not spared tragedy.
Here, after she died this week at age 73, from her parents' divorce, to the joy of making grease, to the joy of finding and losing, with characteristic honesty she describes her own ups and downs. Clarify how you are describing Love, and life with long-term cancer.
Childhood
Although the star grew up in Australia and made his home in California, Olivia was actually born in Cambridge, England.
Her father Brynn was headmaster of her College of Kings, Cambridge and a former Bletchley Park code-breaker, and her mother Irene escaped the Nazis in Germany in 1933 to win a Nobel Prize. The award-winning German physicist Max was her born daughter.
She was five years old when her family immigrated to Australia, but she always maintained her British sense of humor. "I like double entenders," she once chuckled.
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Collect Unknown)Her first heartbreak occurred when her parents divorced when she was 10 years old.
"My father took me to his study and said he was going to leave," she recalled. "He sat me on his lap and said I wanted to be with him." She was told she was with her mother.
"It was just sad," she said. "In a way, I always wonder if it has anything to do with me."[39][40]She also regrets not meeting her famous grandfather, Max. she said.
"My mother always said I had to visit him. I once traveled to Europe when I was 16 or 17, but I was always busy and couldn't do what she said. I regret it," she owned.
Showbiz call
Olivia's passion for singing struck at her early age and ran counter to her academic household tendencies.
She joined a band in her teens and got into a fight with her mother. "She was concerned with her education," she says. "She wanted me to have something to rely on."
Her compromise was to visit her singing teacher to see if she had her talents. But Olivia wasn't impressed.
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ITV/REX/Shutterstock)"I had one lesson and I told my mother I was not going anymore," she admitted. "I wanted to sing the way I wanted to sing. I also told her mother that he sang out of tune." Winning was her ticket to Olivia's success. Literally got her ticket to the UK and she signed a contract with Decca in 1966.
But suddenly she was terrified. "Her mother literally dragged my ear. She didn't want to leave her boyfriend. At first she just wanted to leave. But I grew to love England," she said. I was.
Grease
Olivia, 29, initially protested that she was too young to play Sandy.
And it seems no one was prepared for her character's sexy transformation.
"The night before we shot You're the One That I Want, John was at the drive-in filming her Stranded and I was finishing up," she recalled. rice field.
"I was trying on costumes, hair, and makeup in the trailer, and I don't think anyone recognized me at first. People turned around and thought, 'Wow.' What did I do wrong all along?} (
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Courtesy of Capital Pictures) She also and John Travolta admitted that there were sparks between them, but
never acted.
"There was an attraction, but we never dated. Both were involved with other people and both had deep loyalties," she said.
When she tried to judge the 1978 blockbuster high school musical by modern standards, there was a rare irritability in her voice.
"This was her story in the '50s, where things were different," she said. "In the end, everyone forgets that he changes for her too. There is nothing deep about #MeToo."
Finding Love
He admitted that the divorce probably made him more "cautious" about marriage. "I hoped it was the right choice," she said.
19-year-old The Shadows guitarist Bruce Her early engagement to Welch ended without marriage for six years. "I really wanted to make sure it was correct," she later said.
She eventually married Matt Rattanzi, a dancer whom she met on the set of the movie Xanadu. They were married for 10 years starting in 1985 and had one daughter, Chloe.
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Getty Images)Image:
Getty Images)After the divorce, Olivia dated Hollywood photographer Patrick McDermott, whose relationship lasted nine years, but the relationship reached its most tragic point in 2005 when she disappeared after a fishing trip off the coast of California. It ended in form. It was determined that he "probably" drowned.
Olivia wrote in her autobiography Don't Stop Believin: just a question.
She admitted that she met her true lover for the first time in her middle age. Her second husband, John Easterling, founder of her Amazon Herb Company, which sells plant-based remedies, heard her hit song when they met through a mutual friend. I didn't even know.
"I was 59 when I met the love of my life. There is no time limit to finding The One," she said, adding, "He knew me from my movies and music. I really liked the fact that there weren't
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Kathryn Burke)Their early romance was unconventional. I said, 'I want to take you to Peru to meet the Curandero healers,'" recalls Olivia. "My first date was the worst."
It was she who proposed to him. "We were sitting by this amazing waterfall," she explained. "It was magical and I heard him ask himself if he could be in his future. We are not far from that moment."
Cancer
Olivia was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992. Breast cancer recurred in 2013 and again in 2017, and her scans revealed a tumor in "severe pain" from a sacral fracture. She had to learn to walk again.
The star has always been outspoken about her own illness, she founded her hospital and wellness center in Melbourne, Australia, and was a patient herself.
She acknowledged her innate fear. "Sometimes I get scared, I get sad, I go through moments like that. I'm human and you have to allow yourself to go through it," she said. .
Images:
AFP via Getty Images)But she explained: I don't like war, so I chose not to consider it a battle.She also came to see it as a "gift" of sorts, saying, "I want to be part of finding an end to cancer.
Her husband, John Easterling, grows cannabis on his ranch. Cultivating helped her cope with the pain, which he turned into medicinal drops.
Drugs
Using medicinal cannabis for pain management
"But since I started using it, I've noticed it's working for me. It helps with anxiety, helps me sleep, and relieves pain." ''
She added:
"No one dies from cannabis. You die from opioids."
Her husband John helped her and introduced her to her first experience with hallucinogens. . With him, she underwent an ayahuasca ritual in the Peruvian rainforest.
She had little, but she was very ill. She later said the depression she suffered from was cleared by the "purge."
``My whole body was at peace. she explained.
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Getty Images)Motherhood
Olivia endured multiple miscarriages before conceiving her daughter Chloe.
"I remember when I was pregnant with Khloe. She was on the verge of losing her," she once recalled. "I went to bed and asked God to save her. If God will, I will say the Lord's Prayer every night for the rest of my life. I did." 237} Her daughter battled drugs and anorexia and experienced her own turmoil. Olivia once expressed her concern that Chloe may have caused her problems by not being honest with her about her initial cancer diagnosis when she was a child.
"She had a feeling that something was wrong. It was that Mommy wasn't feeling well. That's what caused her to lose faith in her instincts later in life." I suspect it is," she said.
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