Hopelessly Devoted to Olivia
She didn't expect to be alive in 2000 but Olivia Newton John is back and stronger than ever
Singing at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was the crowning moment of the new millennium for Olivia Newton-John, who, not long ago, thought she might not even live to see the year 2000.
“The 1990s hold many grim memories for me but they’ve made me a stronger and more realistic person. I live every day to its fullest extent and I don’t sweat the small stuff,” she says.
“As I carried that flaming torch, I kept thinking, I never expected to be here. This is great-you’re doing this for Australia; you’re back with a whole new life.”
Olivia’s triumph is she’s survived breast cancer, faced up to the loss of her father and beloved godchild (also from cancer), dealt with a broken marriage, returned from bankruptcy, rebuilt her career and rediscovered joy and romance.
“I know a lot of people were writing me off and there were even moments when I too thought I’d had it,” she admits.
“But I had a daughter to take care of and there was no way I was giving up. Still, believe me, I’m intimately acquainted with both the highs of public triumph and the lows of personal loss.”
The qualities which have got Olivia through are strength, determination and perseverance.
Battling breast cancer, she found an inner strength she never knew she had. Now at 52, even though she’s leading a far less stressful life, the four-time Grammy winner’s career is on the upswing again with lucrative and prestigious appearances.
This year, Olivia serenaded the Pope at a charity event in Rome, President Clinton at an LA fundraiser and the First Lady at a Chicago fundraising party. She has one album pending in the US and a greatest hits album in the works. She also has an independent film, Sordid Lives, due for release next year, in which she cuts loose as an ex-con. Plus Olivia has lent her name to organisations and events dedicated to raising money for breast cancer research.
Olivia’s friends say that, while the money’s not rolling in quite like in the old days, she’s still earning handsomely and rebuilding the fortune she lost when her LA-based, Australian-style sportswear company, Koala Blue, went bust.
"I live every day to its fullest extent and I don't sweat the small stuff"
She has simplified her life, taking only engagements which appeal personally, living in a smaller home la delightful French-style beachside cottage than the Malibu mansion she and daughter Chloe previously occupied, spending more time with her three dogs, three cats and two cockatiels.
Chloe (14) is, of course, the centre of Olivia’s universe and may soon follow mum into showbusiness. Already she’s had small parts in two films with her mother and has a delightful singing voice. Olivia’s promised Chloe the chance to do several songs with her at her next concert.
Mostly though, Olivia’s dedicated to making each day count. “I’m so lucky to be here and I treasure every moment of it I don’t take anything for granted.”
The grim time in 1992 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy and breast reconstruction is not easily forgotten. Even worse for Olivia was the chemotherapy and the days when doctors were determining whether the cancer had spread.
“The night before a big test to detect other tumours, my imagination went wild. I thought the cancer was everywhere-that I was going to die,” she recalls.
“When they told me it hadn’t spread. I vowed to review my entire lifestyle - to start really making the most of everything. I knew a lot of women who didn’t make it.”
“Linda McCartney’s death (in 1998) was quite shocking to a lot of us. It really brought home to me how fortunate I am it wasn’t some really aggressive strain.”
Now, on a typical day, she has breakfast with her daughter, then drives her to school. She returns home to enjoy the garden, picking flowers, pruning the rose bushes and planting. Her exercise regimen includes long walks on the beach, yoga and her current obsession, tennis.
Additional time goes into supporting environmental causes. “We’ve got to stop them wrecking this planet. It’s so beautiful and my heart’s sick at the damage which has already been done. We’ve also got to stop exposing our children and ourselves to the carcinogens the commercial world so routinely puts into our environment.”
Olivia is also a spokeswoman for the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition, which researches the links between children and cancer causing agents.
She is still very friendly with John Travolta, her co-star in their classic movie, Grease, and admits, “I’ll never be able to top that film-it was a one of a kind.”
She failed to rekindle her on-screen magic with a run of bad luck in the 1980s. Both Xanadu and Two of a Kind flopped and she’s still looking for the right script to “really put my movie career back on track again.”
Maybe there was some consolation in the fact she met Matt Lattanzi, then 20, and 11 years her junior, on Xanadu. The couple married in 1985 and 13 months later, Chloe was born. Olivia put her career on hold, devoting much of her energies to the ill-fated Koala Blue project.
The marriage to Matt fell apart 11 years later and he eventually married an Olivia look-alike, physical therapist Cindy Jessup (28) who had been friends with both of then and often baby-sat Chloe.
Olivia was secretly shattered Matt’s departure with another woman came so soon after her cancer ordeal, during which he’d been “loving and highly supportive.”
They both later insisted Cindy had nothing to do with their breakup that it had been a marriage only in name for several years, with each of them going their own ways with different partners.
Now Olivia, Matt, Cindy and Chloe are all good friends. Olivia says, “I’m so glad he’s been such an excellent father to our daughter - that means the world to me.”
Meanwhile Olivia’s found love again with Patrick McDermott (44), a cameraman and studio electrician, who she met four years ago in LA while shooting a TV commercial. They’ve both been through divorces and he has a young son, Chance (eight), So far, they have no plans to marry, although their friends describe them as “soulmates who are definitely in it for the long term.”
“We have a lot in common and are very happy together doing the simple things,” Olivia says
“We play tennis, go hiking and have long sunset walks along the beach. Patrick’s very romantic and I know he loves me. Don’t you think in the final analysis, love is all that really matters in this life?”
By Tony Brenna