Hopelessly devoted for decades: inside Grease co-stars Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta’s special bond – they avoided romance but remained best friends until the very end
- ‘Yours from the first moment I saw you and forever!’ Travolta wrote on Instagram following news of Newton-John’s death this week – but the pair were never more than friends
- Grease made them simultaneous superstars in 1978, and the perfect Hollywood couple kept singing together up until 2012’s hokey holiday album ‘This Christmas’
Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta were a couple only when they appeared together on the big screen. But their platonic love for each other endured long after they played Sandy and Danny in the hit 1978 movie Grease.
“My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better,” Travolta, 68, wrote on Instagram after learning of Newton-John’s death that day at age 73. “Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the first moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!”
Theirs was a friendship forged in the extreme heat of Grease, filmed when they were both in their twenties. In 2018, Travolta explained the strength of their decades-long relationship.
“When you share that kind of meteoric success – and nothing has been able to exceed it – you share a bond,” he told People as the movie marked its 40th anniversary. “I’ve been through her having a child, getting divorced, losing her sister. She’s been through my getting married, having children. It’s wonderful and full of shared memories.”
Newton-John gave her take on their relationship as well, telling People, “We did something life-changing, making that film. [At the premiere] you got the feeling from the energy that something was happening. It was a huge response. I feel grateful to be a part of that and to have worked with him. We’ve stayed friends ever since.”
Travolta always took the time to reach out to her when things were tough, she said.
Over the decades, the actor-singers could be seen mingling at annual G’Day USA events promoting diplomatic and economic ties between the United States and Newton-John’s home country, Australia. Travolta is a pilot who has long been referred to as an “honorary Australian”.
