This Baby Is Real - Zondag Nieuws

Translation from Dutch:

Issue no 1404

A Valentine's Day gift for husband Matt Lattanzi — that's what Olivia Newton-John's baby should be. A very lively gift indeed, because already, more than three months before the joyful birth, the baby is keeping his mother quite busy. A very lively thing, Olivia nods, beaming. Every night he kicks and kicks me awake at almost the same time. Being pregnant is a wonderful feeling!

It's hard to tell otherwise. Olivia's slender figure can still pull off (not too tight) jeans with ease. Strange, huh? I don't look pregnant at all," laughs the singer, now 37. By the end of this month, I'll probably suddenly be as round as a barrel.

Superstitious

It's certainly not the first time that news about Olivia's pregnancy has appeared in the newspapers. That really saddened me, she confides. That it was already everywhere that I was expecting a child when that wasn't the case at all. Matt and I had only just gotten married when that was already written. Absolutely untrue. But my mother reads it over there in Australia and calls me.

Sad because I'm apparently keeping something so important from her. When it became clear that I wasn't expecting a baby at all, some people said I'd had a miscarriage. That's absolutely not true either. I'm trying to forget all that and just concentrate on the birth of our first child.

Because Olivia is very superstitious, she didn't want to make the big news public until after three months of pregnancy — to be sure she'd safely passed those first difficult months, when so much could still go wrong.

At first, I felt a bit sick, but now I'm completely healthy. I have a lot of energy, but Matt is constantly trying to make me rest. It's unbelievable how worried he is about me. He wants so many children. Logically, he comes from a family of nine. But I don't need him to tell me.

The press has already said Olivia was pregnant five times...

I have to take care of myself during these months. I try to walk and swim as much as possible, I take lots of vitamins, I eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, drink more milk, less tea and no alcohol.

Surprise

The many free hours Olivia suddenly has but performing is no longer an option for the time being, and her new album is finished — she's devoting herself to knitting like a true housewife. I'm knitting a sweater for myself now, but if it works out, I'll soon start making clothes for the baby, she promises.

On the advice of friend Jane Seymour, herself the mother of two healthy children and the well-informed daughter of a gynaecologist, it will be a natural birth. Unless the pain is truly unbearable, in which case I might consider anaesthesia. But Jane has assured me that under normal circumstances, childbirth is such a unique event in a woman’s life that I wouldn’t want to miss.

Olivia has already had an amniocentesis to make sure her child is okay. Nothing to worry about, she beams. The test also revealed the baby’s sex, but we’d rather not know. I think it should remain a surprise.

Grown up Girl

Matt and Olivia no longer live in their Malibu ranch, which is currently being renovated. The thing wasn’t designed for an expanding family, so now an extension has to be built for the nurseries. We hope to go back in December, which will also be our one-year wedding anniversary.

While Olivia is enjoying her quiet preparation for motherhood, her success continues unabated. Her new LP Soul Kiss is doing well and her new, harder and somewhat seductive image is clearly a hit.

I wanted to show that I'm a grown-up girl now, Olivia chuckles. Some people might not be so happy with that sultry look, but I couldn't stay the good girl forever! Matt is incredibly supportive; he thinks I can come across as a little sexy. Luckily, he's not the kind of man who doesn't want his wife to be beautiful for someone else. He realizes that my career and our relationship are two completely different things. I'm not always the way I portray myself in photos and on stage. There, I can be a sexy singer, but at home, I'm just a loving woman eagerly awaiting that first baby!

Photo captions: Olivia and Matt on their Paris honeymoon (right).
Below is a picture of a radiantly happy couple. Soon, there will be three of them...