Soul Survivor - New Weekly

Editor:

Olivia Newton-John (page 30) strikes me as someone who has reached that certain age when a woman becomes more comfortable with herself.
Our photographer was pleased to find her looking happy, radiant and making music again.

Soul Survivor

It’s Olivia Newton-John as we’ve never seen or heard her before. Starkers. Baring her soul to reveal her feelings about breast cancer, business worries, the death of her beloved father and that much-discussed marriage to actor Matt Lattanzi.

The girl-next-door in a black mini-skirt and high heels has come of age. And, at 45, Olivia is telling it like it is on her new album, Gaia, and a candid Ray Martin TV special.

I’m definitely growing up. Breast cancer has a way of doing that to you, she says, huge blue eyes alive with newfound health. This is the first time I’ve never really exposed myself as a singer-songwriter and it’s scary. I’ve always performed other people’s songs, not my own, so I never put myself totally on the line until now, when I’ve financed and co-produced the album as well.

The commitment and preparation involved is a bit like childbirth — you forget the pain afterwards. And you have to let go of fear. It’s all relative, and once you’ve faced the biggest fear — that you might die — anything else seems pretty insignificant by comparison. I guess I’m not that mini-skirted girl any more. She pauses for thought, then laughs. Maybe I will be again. Or maybe I’ll strip off and lash myself all over Sydney, now I’ve started to reveal all.

There are limits, however. Recent rumours that her marriage was in trouble still hurt — not only Olivia and Matt, 34, but also their eight-year-old daughter, Chloe.

It’s really hard to deal with stuff like that, especially now Chloe can read some of the rubbish that’s printed All I can say is that I love Matt and he loves me, but our relationship is very private, because it’s about the last private thing we have left. People will think whatever they want, no matter what I say. Nowadays, I just refuse to tune into negativity.

It’s all open to interpretation, like the lyrics on the album. If anyone wants to find out how I feel, they just have to listen to No Other Love, the song I have dedicated to Matt and Chloe.

It’s at Chloe’s urging that Olivia and Matt have decided to sell their two Malibu mansions and make a permanent move to Australia. Home is now their simple hideaway near Alstonville on NSW’s North Coast.

British-born Olivia has just become a fair dinkum Aussie by taking the oath of allegiance to her adopted country. And to prove it, she’ll be singing our national anthem at the rugby league grand final next weekend, in front of a sell-out crowd of more than 40,000 fans.

Olivia has seldom been happier, or more busy. Her environmental series, Wild Life, is soon coming to the Nine Network. Later this year, she’s to star in an American Christmas telemovie. And her book A Pig Tale, looks set to be turned into a cartoon.

I don’t know where it will all lead, she says, happily. I came back to Australia after my chemotherapy and I feel the rainforest and fresh air have healed me and given me peace. Home is a state of mind and I think I’ve found it.

Ray Marlin presents Olivia Newton-John in a one-hour special on Thursday, September 22, 8.30 pm, Nine Network.