Long Live Love
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN dropped a bombshell on the world on August 22 last year. In a carefully worded statement, the multimillionaire singer revealed that her lover of nine years, Patrick McDermott, 48, had vanished nearly two months previously during an overnight fishing trip off the coast of Los Angeles.
“I am hopeful that my treasured friend is safe and well, and I am grateful to the officials who are working so hard to find Patrick, whom I love very much,” Olivia said. “I ask anyone with information that could help to please, please come forward. For those of us who know and love him, it has been a truly heartbreaking experience.”
Olivia’s desperate appeal shocked her millions of fans, not just because it emerged that she had known of his disappearance for weeks and had said nothing, but because the case - soon shrouded in mystery and scandal - opened the tiniest of cracks in the sugar-coated armour with which Olivia has surrounded herself most of her life.
Was her beau the victim of a tragic accident or had he, as the papers were soon to speculate, faked his own death to escape a bitter ex-wife chasing child support?
“I love you,” Patrick McDermott had declared to Olivia on This is Your Life a year before. “The whole world loves you… You are the epitome of the word woman.”
However, within days of Olivia’s statement, some newspapers claimed that the couple had split months before Patrick disappeared.
How, one wondered, could Australia’s sweetheart a woman who has faced divorce, the death of her parents and breast cancer with the greatest courage and dignity find herself entangled in such a sensational mess?
The painful truth is, love for Olivia has always been messy, hard to find and even harder to keep. The wholesome girl-next-door Cliff Richard protégée, who swept to superstardom as the virginal Sandy in Grease and was beloved by John Travolta has been repeatedly unlucky in love.
“Breaking up love affairs is as low as you can get and falling in love is as high,” she has said.
Romantic disasters and love affairs gone wrong litter Olivia’s 57 years. There have been broken engagements, heartbreak and anguish, even a suicide attempt by a fiancé who overdosed after he found her with another man - a track record that belies Olivia’s scrupulously polished image as a pop icon with the unblemished nature of a Doris Day.
There has been love won and love lost, love spurned and an eight-year marriage that she hoped would last forever, but which, like her earlier romances, ultimately withered and died.
Olivia first witnessed the impermanence of love as a child. Her parents, Irene and Brin, divorced when she was 10, causing Olivia to withdraw into herself, laying the foundations for future personal unhappiness. “I don’t think I had a happy childhood,” she says. “My parents’ divorce made me feel insecure. I tried to blank out what was going on and I was always the happy child trying to keep everyone else happy.”
“It wasn’t like it is now with everyone getting divorced and women working by choice. Most of my friends’ parents were happily married and I felt pretty alone.”
Six years later, her older sister, Rona, was divorced as well. “It left me afraid of marriage because I’d seen so much divorce. There’s hardly a member of my family who hasn’t been through it and I guess I’ve been affected by all that. If you’ve never seen a relationship that lasts forever, you tend to believe it’s not possible.”
Olivia’s messy romantic life extends all the way back to her first love, the teen idol Ian Turpie, from whose arms she was literally wrenched by her protective mother. Olivia was 15 and Turps was 20 when they met at Brummels, a late-night coffee shop run by her brother-in-law in Melbourne. Olivia would sing occasionally at the cafe and whenever she wanted an excuse to see Turps, of whom her mother disapproved, she would say she was out singing.
Even today, Ian Turpie remembers their romance fondly. “She was my first love and you don’t easily get over something like that.”
Ultimately, it was Olivia’s sweet voice that finally ended the affair. She went on Sing. Sing, Sing, a TV show hosted by Johnny O’Keefe, and won $300, a return trip to England and a chance at a recording career. “I was still under-age, so my mother tore me away… and kind of dragged me to England by my ear,” she once recalled. “I tried to book a flight back to Australia to see Ian, but my mother found out and stopped me. I even ran to a lawyer to see if I could be made a ward of the court. I was in love and my hormones were going crazy, but my mother thought I was too young for romance. She was right, of course.”
That didn’t stop Olivia continuing a long-distance relationship with Ian Turpie that ended only when she fell in love with Cliff Richard’s best friend, The Shadows’ guitarist Bruce Welch.
The romance was to prove every bit as dramatic and headline-grabbing as the drama that now envelops her with Patrick McDermott’s unexplained disappearance.
Bruce Welch, then 26, was one of the biggest rock stars in Britain and had penned three of Cliff Richard’s greatest hits, Summer Holiday, Bachelor Boy and Please Don’t Tease. He recalls meeting Olivia at a concert in Bournemouth in 1966, when she was 18 and had been booked as the support act. He says he was smitten immediately.
Olivia later told a reporter there was “an instant chemistry”, yet the romance did not ignite until the following year, when they met again and began dating. They announced their engagement in 1968, which was unfortunate, considering Bruce Welch was already married with a seven-year-old son. A few months later, his wife, Ann, filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery, naming Olivia as “the other woman”.
Four years later, the love affair was over, but by that time, Olivia was a star and Bruce was a man obsessed. He says Olivia was “the love of my life” and everything revolved around her. “I started playing her records over and over… I was tormenting myself and was going through almost two bottles of brandy a day.”
When they announced the end of their engagement in a letter to friends, he was so devastated he tried to kill himself. Three days after the split, he took a drug overdose and was rushed by ambulance to hospital. Sitting next to him, ashen-faced and shocked, was Olivia, then aged 23.
“A lot of people reckoned the split was due to her fame, but that wasn’t true. It was another man,” a bitter Bruce told a reporter.
Last year, in an interview with London’s Daily Mail, he repeated the revelation. “Olivia was having an affair and I was unlucky enough to catch them together at her flat,” he said. Though he never named the man, the lover was rumoured to be the late French superstar, Sacha Distel, with whom Olivia was working at the time.
Olivia and Bruce Welch’s lives remained entwined for some time following his suicide attempt. They worked together, shared the same office and manager, and he produced her records, including the single, Let Me Be There, that broke her into the American market.
“My marriage broke up because of Olivia,” Welch has said. “Life’s funny. I hurt my ex-wife by divorcing her and, in return, I got hurt by Olivia. I don’t feel bitter that my marriage broke up for nothing, just sad and sorry.”
Getting Olivia to talk about her private life is like trying to prise an oyster off a rock. Only last year, she repaid a hefty publisher’s advance for a book on her life after starting on the project and then deciding she couldn’t write a kiss and tell. However, she did discuss Bruce Welch in an interview last year.
“Of course, I knew that Bruce was married when we got engaged, which was rather inappropriate, but I was too young to know what was going on. It was all a bit strange,” she said.
Olivia’s next lover arrived in a scene reminiscent of Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief. It was 1974 and Olivia was sunbathing with her friend, Chantal Contouri, on a beach on the French Riviera, when a noisy speedboat caught their attention. On board was Lee Kramer, a tall, blonde entrepreneur, who was a cousin of Chantal’s fiancé. He dived from the boat and swam to shore to introduce himself.
Lee and Olivia had an immediate rapport. “There was this chemistry thing between us,” she says. Within a year, the independently wealthy former shoe importer was Olivia’s manager and lover.
After coming fourth in the Eurovision Song Contest (won by Abba), Olivia moved to the US, with Lee spearheading her career and helping her scale the heights of stardom. In 1975, Have You Never Been Mellow was number one.
Yet it was as Sandy in Grease that she became a megastar and a multimillionaire.
Olivia reportedly received a $10 million pay cheque courtesy of her fee and a percentage of the film’s profits. There were rumours about a romantic attachment between her and her co-star, John Travolta, which they denied, but which enraged her fiancé, Lee Kramer. He told reporters, “It’s very irritating reading all the rubbish about Olivia and John Travolta. Why do people give a damn about what we do in our private lives?”
The pair broke up in 1976, got back together in 1977 and planned to marry in 1979, but Olivia fell ill and the nuptials were postponed. They parted soon after.
In 1980, while making the over-hyped disco flick, Xanadu, Olivia met dancer Matt Lattanzi, 11 years her junior. “There was instant chemistry between us,” she recalled.
“I thought he was such a sweet person. He was a breath of fresh air compared to the men I was used to meeting.”
The couple lived together for four years and married in December 1984.
Their only child, Chloe Rose, now 20, was born in 1986. “I desperately wanted to have a child, which is why I got married,” says Olivia. “I would have liked more children, but it just didn’t happen.”
Olivia still refuses to apportion blame for the break-up and deliberately makes no reference to Cindy Jessup, the 23-year-old student with whom Matt Lattanzi formed a close relationship during their marriage and whom he moved in with after their divorce. As she was recovering from her cancer, Olivia forced the issue and she and Matt separated.
“I think our marriage would have eventually come to an end,” she said, “but it happened sooner because of the cancer, which was a good thing. It was very painful, but we were never at odds with each other.”
Although her husband had been extremely attentive during her cancer treatment, the marriage foundered in 1995 and Olivia and Matt were divorced. Psychologically, it was a terrible blow.
“Divorce is never all right,” Olivia said last year. “Everybody wants the happy ending and the white picket fence, particularly me. My own parents divorced when I was 10 and maybe because of that I kept putting off marriage. When I did get married, I wanted it to last forever, but that wasn’t to be.”
Those who know her say that after her split from Matt and life-changing battle with cancer, Olivia was on a different spiritual path and needed to find someone her equal. She found him in Patrick McDermott, an American cameraman/gaffer, eight years her junior.
“We met on the set of a commercial. We’d both been through divorces and we just had a lot in common,” Olivia explained. “He’s a thoughtful, considerate person and he’s funny. He is a lovely man and we have a really nice relationship. I am very fulfilled,” she told a reporter last April, a couple of months before Patrick’s disappearance.
“I hadn’t met her before, I never had a crush on her or enjoyed her music, and I never saw Grease,” Patrick admitted.
“When I got to speak with her and make true eye contact for the first time, we were locked as if we had known each other for years in past lives.”
“He’s very romantic,” Olivia added. “The most romantic person I’ve ever met.” Last July, life was looking rosy for Olivia. She’d recorded an album, Stronger Than Before, which she planned to dedicate to all those who’d endured the same sort of life crises and losses she knew far too much about, with part of the proceeds earmarked for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre at Austin Hospital in her hometown of Melbourne. Daughter Chloe had written the lyrics for one of her songs, Can I Trust Your Arms.
Olivia was firming up plans for her current tour of Australia. And she was taking a much-needed break at the Gaia Retreat and Spa “a little piece of heaven where I can be and not have to be ‘on’” that she co-owns with a close friend, Gregg Cave, at Newrybar, south-west of Byron Bay, NSW. Gaia was a labour of love for Olivia, who has owned property at Byron Bay for many years.
She and Gregg had carefully planned, renovated and opened the boutique spa what she describes as “a mix of bare feet and Armani” - after discovering the land several years ago while househunting for Gregg. She was there when the phone rang. It was terrible news. A car accident in Sydney had left her god-daughter, Jerusha McGrath, in a coma, and Olivia hurried to her side. On July 7, she appeared at a Planet Ark tree-planting ceremony. Unbeknown to Olivia, Patrick had disappeared a week before, without a trace.
On June 30, Patrick McDermott had paid his fee of US$135, then boarded an overnight fishing charter boat, the Freedom, at San Pedro Harbour, just south of Los Angeles. When he didn’t show up to see his adored son, Chance, a few days later, his worried ex-wife, actress Yvette Nipar, contacted authorities. His car was located in the marina car park on July 11, with his backpack, wallet, car keys, organiser and fishing gear in it. His wallet contained his driver’s licence and passport (something an American would not normally carry), but no cash.
An immediate investigation was launched. Conflicting reports from those on board made the situation fraught. Some claimed to have seen him after the ship docked. Others said he’d disappeared while onboard.
Olivia was devastated. She remained mum at first-out of respect for his family, she later explained which led to quite unfair criticism about the depth of her feelings for Patrick.
As if this weren’t difficult enough, Olivia’s nephew, Emerson Newton-John, claimed that his aunt and Patrick were no longer a couple. “It just naturally came to an end,” he said. “Livvy saw it was not progressing.”
Emerson also said that Patrick, sober for many years, had started drinking again and was depressed about his financial state and problems with access to his son.
Those claims were rebutted by Phil Stone, Australian sales manager for Olivia’s Koala Blue wines. “As far as I am aware,” he said, “they were still very much together.”
Whether they were still together or not, Patrick had serious emotional and financial problems stemming from an acrimonious divorce. In court documents dating from 2002, his ex-wife had accused him of abusive behaviour and also claimed that he preferred to spend time with Olivia rather than see his son. In addition, Patrick had filed for bankruptcy in 2000 and had been struggling financially ever since.
In April 2005, Yvette Nipar was back in court, stating that Patrick was behind with mandated monthly child support payments, an offence that, if not rectified, usually leads to a jail sentence. A life insurance policy for $132,000 to be paid out to his son upon Patrick’s death or presumed death, was regarded as a possible motive for him to disappear.
Frustrated by the investigation, Olivia turned to trusted private detective Gavin De Becker, whose firm had saved her from Michael Perry, a deranged stalker in 1983. (Back then, Perry, an escapee from a mental institution, believed that Olivia was responsible for dead bodies rising through the floor of his home. De Becker’s team twice turned Perry away from Olivia’s Malibu home before he eventually killed five people, including his parents. He is currently on death row.)
Olivia grieved for Patrick in private. “It’s very shocking. In the beginning I was kind of frozen,” she admitted. She still clings to hope that Patrick is alive, although that possibility grows fainter with each passing day.
“We miss him. We love him. I loved Patrick very much, I always will. It’s still a mystery. We’re still kind of praying that he’ll come back. I go back and forth, but speculation is really a dangerous thing. It’s just really, really hard.”
“I have my moments,” she added. “Life goes on and you wake up every morning and you just cope. Sometimes I feel really strong and sometimes I don’t. That’s part of life and of being a human being.”
“Things like this come in waves. Anyone who has gone through loss or a painful experience knows that. You think you’re coping, then you hit a wall or a wave and you go down and come up again.
“Patrick would want me to go on with my life, I know that.”
The latest news is that Olivia has been linked with a millionaire American businessman and film producer, Michael Klein, 58, a friend and neighbour she has known for decades. They were recently spotted together at Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Mar al Lago, where she sang for a private charity.
One of Olivia’s friends was quoted as saying, “Michael is a very successful businessman, but very low-key. He is a lovely guy and is helping Olivia to move on.”
Olivia’s recent Australian tour and the release of her album have also been a comfort. “The weird thing was that this album was done before all that happened so now it is almost like I have made it for myself. I didn’t feel like singing and I didn’t think I would ever sing again. The thought of it was terrifying to me, she explained.
“Singing is a part of me and it’s my soul. It’s how I can express myself and move through it. It’s healing for me as well as the audience and I need that. Singing has helped me to deal with the grief.”
Sue Dexter and staff writers.
The Men Who Mattered
Olivia’s affair with The ShadowS guitarist Bruce Welch in 1968 broke up his marriage, but didn’t last.
In 1972, French heart-throb Sacha Distel was rumoured to be the man who replaced Welch in Olivia’s affections.
Pop idol Cliff Richard took Olivia under his wing in 1972 and helped launch her career on the world stage.
Olivia met entrepreneur Lee Kramer in 1974. He became her manager and they planned to wed.
John Travolta, Olivia’s co-star in the 1978 movie classic Grease, became a lifelong friend.
Matt Lattanzi, a dancer 11 years younger than Olivia, married her in 1984 and fathered their daughter, Chloe.
Olivia with longtime companion Patrick McDermott in early 2005. He disappeared mysteriously in June last year.
Film producer Michael Klein is said to be the new man in Olivia’s life. They’ve known each other for decades.