Just learning how to Skype and seated in her home office wearing a comfy-looking shawl and large reading glasses on February 21, Olivia Newton-John peers questioningly at the computer screen for her video interview, only to erupt with Sandy-like joy. “It’s working! There you are,” she says, as she settles in with the new technology. The next step is a bit trickier: opening up about her life now. It’s the first time Newton-John has fully addressed the state of her health after multiple tabloid reports in January all but had her at death’s door, claiming that the beloved Grease star and “Physical” singer, 70, had nearly (or fully) succumbed to the stage 4 breast cancer that is a fact of her life.
Those things are so stupid. Why not just go, ‘Here I am, and I’m fine!’ ” she says of immediately taking to social media with a smiley video denial. “We just nipped it in the bud.” She’s certainly not saying her farewells, but Newton-John admits that the last few months have been challenging. Nearly two years after learning her breast cancer had returned for a third time – she was first diagnosed in 1992 and secretly overcame another bout in 2013– Newton-John reveals to WHO that she has spent the past six months recovering from a fractured pelvis, a side effect of the weakening of her bones due to cancer, which this time has spread to her sacrum.
The star goes into detail about the latest ordeal and a lifetime full of other ups and downs in her memoir Don’t Stop Believin’. The title, she says, fits perfectly. “I always felt empowered when I sang it,” says Newton-John of her 1976 song (not to be confused with Journey’s anthem). The song’s message particularly resonates, she says. “You’ll get by and bad days will hurry by – what could be more perfect?”
The star goes into detail about the latest ordeal and a lifetime full of other ups and downs in her memoir Don’t Stop Believin’. The title, she says, fits perfectly. “I always felt empowered when I sang it,” says Newton-John of her 1976 song (not to be confused with Journey’s anthem). The song’s message particularly resonates, she says. “You’ll get by and bad days will hurry by – what could be more perfect?”
Newton-John had this strong brand of optimism long before she and John Travolta danced and sang themselves into household names back in 1978. Dubbed Pollyanna by her older sister Rona growing up, Newton-John hasn’t changed much. Rather than dwell on the valleys of her life – like the mysterious disappearance of boyfriend Patrick McDermott in 2005 or the heartbreaking loss of Rona to brain cancer in 2013 – she counts her blessings, such as her husband of 11 years, John Easterling, daughter Chloe Lattanzi, 33, and her wildly successful movie and music career. “Everyone has difficulty in their life,” she says. “I try to live in the moment and enjoy right now, which is all we have.”
Right now Newton-John is on the mend. “I started on a walker, then a cane and now nothing,” she says of spending recent months regaining her strength. She’s come a long way. After feeling intense pain while taking part in her annual cancer walk last September, the star learned it was due to a cancer-induced pelvic fracture. She was put on immediate bed rest to prevent further fractures, and the injury caused her to spend her 70th birthday receiving radiation treatment at her own Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne.
“There were all these things I was going to do for my birthday,” she says of planning a blowout in LA – which would turn into a quiet dinner with close family and friends in the hospital. “But God had other plans.” Still, she says, “I never say, ‘Why me?’ I was like, ‘Wow, I’m in my hospital that I’d dreamt of building for people to have rest and peace, and there I was getting the best care. It was quite magical.”
Coming to grips with this latest aggressive form of the disease (which doctors say is incurable but can be managed through treatment) has been a process. “Of course, I had my moments and my tears and all that,” she says.
“But I have a wonderful husband who supports me.” Easterling, a natural-health entrepreneur, also helps with her holistic treatments. At their Southern California ranch, “my husband hands me all these herbs every morning and makes me a green algae drink,” she says. A proponent of medicinal cannabis, “he grows the plants and makes them into liquid for me. I take drops maybe four to five times a day.”
Initially, Newton-John was “a little nervous” using the drug given the stigma (she’d tried marijuana a few times recreationally as a young adult), but she came around. “It has helped incredibly with pain management and sleep.”
Daughter Chloe, who lives in Oregon, also runs a cannabis farm. Says Newton-John: “It’s an amazing plant, a maligned plant, but it’s helping so many people.” The singer is also taking an oral form of traditional medicine prescribed by her oncologist. She admits she can be guilty of sugarcoating the facts of life.
“I probably downplay things a lot,” she says. “I don’t like to worry people.” But the death rumours hurt. “My friends were calling and believing this… I had to say, ‘You really think if it was that bad you wouldn’t know?’ ” Ask her now and she says, “I’m feeling good, just getting stronger.” On a recent visit to her doctor, the star adds, “she was very happy with [my progress]”.
Meanwhile, it’s the first time Newton-John has had time off in decades. “I’ve been working my whole life. Now I’m getting up in the morning, feeding my cat and my dog and my husband, usually in that order. Just enjoying being a housewife.” She still sings her hits in the shower, but “I don’t have any work plans,” she says. “I’m just living life and figuring out what’s next. I know there will be something.”
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