Getty Olivia Newton John and her Mother pictured at the premiere of "It's My Party" in 1991 in Sydney, Australia.
Olivia Newton-John had one child, a daughter, Chloe Lattanzi. Two close family members died before her, including a sister, Rona Newton-John, and her father, who was a MI5 agent. Her husband announced her death at age 73 following a lengthy cancer battle that lasted almost half her life. Newton-John had a family history of cancer.
Newton-John’s first cancer diagnosis was 30 years ago in 1992. It was not long after her father died that she received the diagnosis, according to The Guardian. Newton-John also had an older sister, Rona, who died around the time she learned her cancer had returned in 2013. Newton-John learned the cancer returned when she was in a car accident.
“Both times she was still shellshocked with grief,” the Guardian reported.
But when it came back again in 2017, she said in her 2020 interview she was not surprised.
“It’s been a part of my life for so long. I felt something was wrong. It’s concerning when it comes back, but I thought: ‘I’ll get through it again,” she told The Guardian.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Newton-John Said Her Daughter Gives Her Strength & They Recorded a Song Together, ‘Window on the Wall’
BREAKING: Olivia Newton-John, who gained worldwide acclaim for her starring role in “Grease,” has died at age 73, according to her family. t.co/Q48rHbZGh7
Newton-John told the TODAY show that her daughter, Chloe Rose Lattanzi, gives her strength. In the 2021 interview, the star spoke about quarantine and the birth of the mother-daughter partnership. Read more about her only child here.
“The song just called me, I wasn’t looking for it. And then I played the song and I started crying. It was really emotional, the song really hit me in the gut,” she said on the show.
Newton-John said she wrote the song and decided her daughter was the best person to partner with for the duet.
“It was about relationships, it was about forgiveness, compassion, seeing the other side, other people’s point of view, and still with love. And understanding and kindness,” she said.
Lattanzi said on the show that she was moved by her mother’s request.
“And I loved how moved my mom was, and the fact that she could’ve asked anyone to sing it with her and she asked me, that touched my heart more than you could ever know,” she told TODAY.
2. Newton-John Was the Granddaughter of a Nobel Prize Winner Who Was Friends With Albert Einstein
Newton-John’s mother, Irene, was the daughter of Max Born, The Guardian reported. Born was a physicist who was awarded the Nobel prize, the article said.
The German physicist was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1954, originating from his laboratory research at the University of Frankfurt-on-Main where he was appointed professor in 1919, at the start of World War I, according to The Nobel Prize website. Much of his work focused on crystals and crystal lattices. Born was the son of an embryologist and anatomist, who was married in 1913 and had three children.
“As were so many other German scientists, he was forced to emigrate in 1933 and was invited to Cambridge, where he taught for three years as Stokes Lecturer,” the biography said. “His main sphere of work during this period was in the field of nonlinear electrodynamics, which he developed in collaboration with Infeld.”
3. Newton-John’s Father Was an M15 Agent Who Arrested Nazi Leader Rudolph Hess
Brinley Newton-John, the father of #OliviaNewtonJohn, was an British intelligence officer who worked on the Enigma project and was responsible for the apprehension of Nazi leader Rudolph Hess during the WWII. Her mother, Irene Born, was a Jewish refugee from Germany.
Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, September 26, 1948, to parents Brinley “Bryn” Newton-John and Irene Born. The family moved to Melbourne, Australia, when she was 6. There, her father worked as an academic, according to The Guardian. Before that, her father was also an M15 agent, the publication said.
Brinley Newton-John was an MI5 agent who worked on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park, according to his obituary. He was also known as the agent who took Nazi leader Rudolph Hess into custody during World War II, the obituary said. His wife and Newton-John’s mother, Irene Newton-John, was a Jewish war refugee.
He, too, died of cancer, according to the obituary. His cause of death was liver cancer in 1992. Brinley Newton-John was 78 at the time of his death.
4. Newton-John Was the Youngest of 3 Children & Her Sister Married ‘Grease’ Co-Star Jeff Conaway
Newton-John had two older siblings, according to The Guardian. Her brother, Hugh, was a doctor and her sister, Rona, pursued an acting career. Rona Newton-John was married to her sister’s co-star in Grease, Jeff Conaway, for five years, from 1980 to 1985.
Rona Newton-John also died from cancer, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. She was 70 years old when she died from brain cancer in March 2013, the article said.
Jeff Conaway (Kenickie) had a big crush on Olivia Newton-John (Sandy) and was really nervous around her on set. Oddly enough, he ended up marrying her sister, Rona Newton-John.
Rona Newton-John remarried, wedding Melbourne restaurateur and nightclub owner Brian Goldsmith, the article said. She had four children: professional race car driver Emerson Newton-John, singer Tottie Goldsmith, Brett Goldsmith and Fiona Edelstein, the article said.
“While she lived most of her life in the shadow of her younger sister’s fame, Rona had many acting roles including appearances on The Benny Hill Show and the British television series Gerry Anderson’s UFO,” the article said.
The sisters also recorded a duet, “Just Us Two.”
5. Two of Newton-John’s Family Members Grow Marijuana & She Was an Advocate for Medical Cannabis
Olivia Newton-John and her husband John Easterling wed in 2008
Newton-John became an advocate for medical cannabis after she was introduced to it by her husband, John Easterling, according to The Guardian.
“I was nervous of it in the beginning. But I could see the benefits once I started using it. It helps with anxiety, it helps with sleep, it helps with pain,” Newton-John told the publication.
Easterling grows marijuana on their ranch, and his production at the greenhouse is part of his business, the Amazon Herb Company, The Guardian reported. Lattanzi owns a marijuana farm in Oregon, the article said.
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