Olivia has one regret
Olivia Newton-John would be the first to agree that she has, indeed, had a fortunate life. She is arguably the most successful singer this country has exported. She is worth millions through her string of Koala Blue stores, and she goes from strength to strength in an industry that thrives on the energy of youth.
She is not just hanging on to her career, she’s still a major force.
Through it all, she has maintained a blemish-free image, a reputation for keeping her feet firmly planted on the ground. There has never been a breath of scandal, a hint at a darker side.
But if she has to admit to any regrets, there is just one: “Looking back,” she said, “I wish I’d been nicer to my own mother. I was an obnoxious 14-year-old a stage that lasted till I was more than 16”.
“Why? I guess it was hormonal. We all go through a bad stage.”
She is waiting for her own daughter, three-year-old Chloe, to treat her the same way when she reaches the terrible teens.
“I’m prepared for her to be awful,” Olivia said. “And one day, when she’s a mother, she’ll look back and realise what she did to me. That’s the way life is, I’ve discovered. It takes a child of your own to make you realise how rotten you were to your own mother.”
Olivia Newton-John, newly turned 40, still exudes a cheery humour, an artless honesty and ordinariness.
At home, in her sprawling ranch house in the back hills of Malibu with views to the Pacific ocean, it’s kids. cats, dogs, horses, dishes on the kitchen sink and dusty boots in the hallway, Olivia mooches around in T-shirts and jeans, as slim and girlish as a woman half her age. No doubt, like all of us, she has her problems but you’d never know.
What’s even more amazing is that this incredibly successful performer is one of a very select few expatriates who have managed to escape the tall poppy syndrome. When Olivia makes a success of something, people are pleased for her, not envious. She has an uncanny ability to say just the right thing at just the right time.
Ask her if she’s bright, though, and she’ll say no: “Not academically, anyway. I was never much good at school. I couldn’t understand a thing. I was always too shy to ask any questions. I suppose I had the brains, but not the concentration. I was always the youngest in the class. Maybe that’s why I was so shy.”
She didn’t even complete her secondary schooling.
“My mother always wanted me to finish school and pushed me towards that goal. I think I disappointed her when I quit early. At the time, it seemed terrible. Looking back, I’m glad I did. I followed my instincts. I’m not unhappy with the way life has turned out for me.”
Her mother tried hard to steer her daughter away from a career in music (Olivia’s parents were divorced when she was nine years old) and when she saw it was impossible, tried to push her into studying music and drama. Olivia proved a disappointment again. She failed music!
“Mum thought the entertainment industry was a chancy business. She was right. She always wanted me to have something to fall back on. I suppose her early warnings taught me to understand that success can disappear overnight. There’s not a day I don’t remind myself that it (fame) could all be gone tomorrow.”
“What’s so amazing, is that now I have a child of my own, I want my daughter to do the same things my mother wanted me to do. I realise at last that my mother was right about nearly everything. It’s only now I’m older that I realise she was a driving force in my life, that when she grabbed me by the ear and dragged me, it was for my ultimate good.”
Olivia’s priorities have changed enormously since her marriage to actor Matt Lattanzi, and the birth of her daughter. She has moved from singing about boys and girls and romance to songs with a social con science. She is smart enough to realise that at 40, it doesn’t always look right to be acting like a teenager.
“I am getting older and I just have to accept it,” she said. “What worries me in the kind of world my child will grow up in. I want it to be as good as it was when I was young. I have my fears for the future - Chloe’s future. I feel, sometimes, that if nuclear war doesn’t do us in, pollution will. Music is a way of communicating, it’s the mass literature of this century.”
At home. Olivia maintains as strictly an organic lifestyle as possible. She and Matt use natural fertilisers, and biodegradable household products.
“I’m teaching Chloe about the environment, she said, “but I’m not telling her anything that would freak her out. She’s highly intelligent and would pick up on the bad bits very quickly.”
Her child, she added, has made her vulnerable in a new way. “The way you love a child is different from any other kind of love. It’s selfless. Is she spoiled? No more than most kids. What she is, is very loved. But I can dole out the discipline if I have to.”
Matt is equally absorbed with his daughter. They’re both hoping to have at least one more child. He’s one of 10 children from an Italian family and they’re all still very close.
Was it hard returning to her career after a three-year break?
“No, singing is like riding a bike. you never forget how it’s done. I’ll keep doing it forever. If a song bombed. I wouldn’t be devastated, disappointed, maybe, but not devastated.”
“Of course I want a new album to do well, I enjoy the adrenalin, but as I said, I’ve known from the start that tomorrow the audience could be clapping someone else.”
For the moment, Olivia hasn’t any worries. Her latest album, “The Rumour”, shows every sign of keeping her star shining brightly.
By Susan Duncan