In the press, Newton-John promoted self-breast exam kits and spoke about the benefits of regular health check-ups. She continued releasing music and amped up her efforts to fight cancer, eventually opening the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in the late 2000s in Melbourne, Australia. I was thinking of five years as my goal, and here was someone who had 20 years after the surgery.” “I remember in my first year of treatment this lady had read about me in the paper and she came up to me, and said, ‘I’m 20 years down the track now.’ That was a defining moment for me. But it’s important to realize it’s not necessarily a death sentence. It’s the word ‘cancer’ that freaks everybody out. “I never imagined I could talk about my breasts like this, but I do it because I think it helps other women. “I’m a very private person,” she told him. Though Newton-John had released a few personal albums over the years - including “Gaia: One Woman’s Journey,” chronicling her cancer struggle - her official return to the music industry wouldn’t come until “Back With a Heart” in 1998.Īt that point, she seemed to have a new resolve, Times music critic Robert Hilburn wrote. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John’s mystifying Christmas video “Once you’ve faced your greatest fears, life somehow doesn’t seem as threatening,” she said.Įntertainment & Arts John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John’s mystifying Christmas video
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But a friend had let it slip.Ĭhloe “came running home and said, ‘Is it true?’ I told her it was, and I promised her from then on I’d always tell her everything,” Newton-John told The Times in late 1994, when her cancer was in remission and she was back at work with a TV movie. She fought back with chemotherapy, a partial mastectomy and breast reconstruction, and she tried not to let her daughter know what was going on. Then the ’90s arrived, bringing with them a 1991 bankruptcy filing for Koala Blue and a 1992 breast cancer diagnosis for Newton-John. Living in Malibu’s Paradise Cove, she focused on her family and her environmental advocacy. She married “Xanadu” actor-dancer Matt Lattanzi in 1984 and two years later they had a daughter, Chloe. Newton-John wound up lowering her profile from its fan-fueled peak, which had seen her smiling from glossy magazine covers regularly. “Two of a Kind,” which paired her again with Travolta a few years later, would do slightly better, but her career as a big-screen leading lady was dead in the water. In 1982, she started the Australian-style sportswear line Koala Blue.īut the 1980 roller disco fantasy musical film “Xanadu” had actually flopped. The single “Magic” and the sexy tune “Physical” would top the charts in 1980 and ’81, respectively, as Newton-John changed her style and her sound, moving toward a pop-rock blend. “It’s because if you’re beautiful, they figure you must be dumb and a no-talent.” “Why is it that if you look a little bit funky, the critics give you better reviews?,” she asked the Times reporter. Newton-John had lived with manager Lee Kramer at a time when “living with” wasn’t the norm, and she still wrangled with being pretty. I never had the nerve to break out before I did ‘Grease.’… Also, I’ve never been hit on so much in my life as when I first put on those pants.” “I’ve lived with this innocent, clean-cut image for so long that at first, I was really frightened to do something different. “I’m into a lot of freaky things lately,” she told The Times that year. Newton-John released album “Totally Hot” in 1979, bringing with it hot-pink stretch pants and black leather outfits. Other stories mentioned a need for more security when she played in Las Vegas if “the men in the audience get any more enthusiastic” than they were at one midnight show. “It is easy to form this opinion from listening to her records but it is not possible to cling to it after seeing her in concert.” “Olivia Newton-John is often accused of having a very unsubstantial voice and only one asset - beauty,” Dennis Hunt wrote in a 1976 Los Angeles Times review of her show at the Greek Theatre. Still, despite her success and her rabid fan base, many critics took shots at her singing, saying she had no range and was just “another pretty voice.” 1 on the Billboard 200.Īnd Newton-John was beautiful. She was on TV specials and opened for Charlie Rich, the Smothers Brothers and Don Rickles in Las Vegas, then headlined on her own. She garnered the Country Music Assn.’s female vocalist of the year award in 1974, beating Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Ann Miller and Loretta Lynn. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 that year, ahead of “Have You Never Been Mellow” that year. She won female country vocal performance for “Let Me Be There” in 1974 and pop vocal performance and record of the year for “I Honestly Love You” in 1975.
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