What Olivia does not like to talk about
Translation from German
Today, Olivia Newton-John is one of the top American TV stars and is admired by countless fans all over the world. You can imagine how hard Olivia had to fight for her success…
For years, she struggled with her image as the good teenager with the ponytail. It was only through her role in Grease, where she develops from a naively innocent schoolgirl to a sophisticated clique girl, that she managed to grow up.
“I always felt like I couldn’t show that I wasn’t really so good and innocent,” Olivia says. “Because I thought the fans wouldn’t like me any more. It was terrible; I was somehow constantly running away from myself. It always gave me a pang when someone called me Livvy; I felt like I wasn’t being taken seriously. Grease changed me a lot. Success has developed my self-confidence tremendously.”
"My school days were a nightmare."
Her lack of self-confidence and shyness were Olivia’s biggest problems since childhood. “My entire school years were a nightmare,” Livvy recalls, a constant gauntlet. “Olivia’s writing was always good. But when she had to speak in front of the class, she was sometimes so nervous that she couldn’t get a word out. She had virtually no friends at school.
On the contrary, when she sang for the first time on an Australian television show at the age of 14, there were many girls at school who, out of jealousy, tried to make Olivia’s life difficult with constant teasing.
Olivia’s only enjoyment came from the roles she landed in plays performed by her class. But even this pleasure had a catch.
Olivia: “I don’t know why, but I was often chosen for solo parts, which meant I was completely alone on stage. Before my performance, I was usually completely exhausted with stage fright.”
Olivia had just as little luck with boys back then. At fifteen, she fell madly in love for the first time with the captain of a football team. She went to every game, trying as often as possible to sneak into the team’s locker room to at least see her crush. But it remained just loving glances. The boy didn’t even think about talking to Olivia. And she herself was too shy to make the first move.
A few months later, she had more luck in love. Livvy met an acquaintance of her older sister Rona. His name was Ian and he was much older than her. He had already finished school and earned his money as a singer and guitarist in a dance band. He waited for Olivia every day outside school to walk everyone home. Later, he taught her how to play the guitar and showed her how to do Stage moves.
She got her first kiss at a drive-in movie theater
She also got her first kiss—at a drive-in movie theater. She didn’t notice the film being shown there at all.
Olivia comes from an educated and well-to-do family. Her mother, Irene Newton-John, a German, is the daughter of Max Born, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Her father, Bryn Newton-John was principal at Ormond College in Melbourne.
Naturally, their parents tried everything to get Olivia, Rona, and Hugh through university.
When Olivia remembers her father, a tall, always very distinguished-looking man with a loud, deep voice, she still brims with emotion.
Olivia was afraid of her father
“I love him,” she says. “But as a child, I was very afraid of him.”
And even when I think of him today, a strange feeling sometimes arises within me. “His voice commanded respect everywhere, but it frightened me. Around him, I always felt like I wasn’t smart, polite, or attentive enough to fulfil his expectations. For example, he loves classical music and plays records all day long in every room he’s in. Even today, I don’t particularly like it — everything sounds so sad, ponderous, and depressing.”
It was an extremely difficult decision for Olivia when she didn’t return to school after the Christmas holidays in 1963, even though she only had one year left to graduate. The impetus for her decision came from a teacher who grumpily told her one day: “If you don’t feel like concentrating, don’t come here any more. You should become a show star instead — you don’t have a chance in the exam anyway.”
Olivia felt incredibly guilty towards her parents when she gave up school. Even years later, she had complexes about not receiving a final certificate.
Olivia’s show career began in London. At 17, she won a singing competition in Melbourne.
In the English capital, she met Shadows guitarist Bruce Welch. She was impressed when he picked her up in a Rolls-Royce and took her to expensive restaurants, where the champagne sometimes flowed freely.
“I can still remember that first evening with Bruce,” Olivia recalls. “I drank so much champagne that I felt incredibly sick in the car afterwards, and that was the end of the evening.”
But Bruce and Olivia spent many more evenings together. Not only did he become her manager, to whom she owes much of her career as a country singer, but she also became engaged to him.
Bruce introduced Olivia to Cliff Richard, who took her on his German tour, thus giving her an international boost.
Because of Lee, Olivia's engagement fell through.
1973 was a significant year for Olivia. She had just achieved international success with “Let Me Be There” when she met Lee Kramer in Monte Carlo. He was 24 and a young, successful shoe entrepreneur.
For both of them, it was love at first sight. Lee cut short his vacation in Monte Carlo after two days and returned to England with Olivia.
On the first day in London, we played a real game of hide-and-seek, Olivia remembers. “I didn’t want Bruce to see me with Lee until I’d told him everything. So I arranged to meet Lee at an unknown restaurant in Chelsea. Lee wandered around for hours until he found it.”
The love between Lee and Olivia lasted seven years. At the beginning of the year, they separated as good friends…