The Tragedy Of John Travolta Is Heartbreaking

he's lost his mother his son and his wife but could it have been the media that hurt John Travolta the most young John Travolta didn't seem to have the tragic home life that many stars reflect on as adults according to wensley Clarkson's biography John Travolta back in character Travolta and his siblings had loving parents who were always there to protect and encourage them that sounds great but Clarkson suggested this helicopter parenting left Travolta incredibly spoiled and ill-adjusted to the world outside of his family well my parents were the best audience of course early on and then at six or seven I graduated to inviting the neighborhood in as a young man in high school Travolta was shy academically indifferent socially awkward and Incredibly attached to his mother as Travolta himself explained I would come home from school and I'd play a Broadway musical record instead of running to do my homework that made me different from my peers my reality was different from theirs I was interested in Show Business and they weren't being different didn't make Travolta many friends as his time in school was often filled with bullying and name-calling that often ended with him running home in tears although his sheltered life kick-started his interest in what would become his acting career it also left him unable and unwilling to make friends his own age he was suspended for various behavioral problems and he suffered from severe anxiety that apparently stemmed from loneliness Travolta's sheltered spoiled upbringing also made him ill-equipped to deal with the sort of heartbreak that goes along with falling in love growing up and growing apart he met his first love Denise worms when they were both young and their friendship eventually blossomed into something more romantic they would date for about five years per Clarkson's biography their relationship allowed Gibraltar to form one of his first outside of the family relationships but it didn't end as he wanted it to Travolta's early acting career separated the couple as he had to travel while she remained in their hometown by the time he had started booking commercials he'd moved to New York City and the distance was just too much his sister Ellen was there for that fateful phone call and she recalled she told Johnny she wanted to break up with him he was devastated Travolta had been doing a play in Chicago and flew home immediately but worms refused to take him back it hurt the young actor enough that he would end up having major difficulties building other relationships after the breakup the pain was renewed when worms showed up to see Travolta touring with the grease musical in San Francisco he thought she was interested in getting back together but instead she wanted to tell him she was getting married to someone else it would take Travolta a long time to understand her side of the story one of Travolta's earliest movie appearances was in Devil's reign in which he starred alongside Stars William Shatner Ernest Borgnine and Tom scarrett in the story about a satanic cult the movie wasn't particularly well received by critics and filming it was no picnic it was made in sweltering brutally uncomfortable conditions in Mexico and Travolta was in Misery the whole time the one Saving Grace for Travolta was that one of the supporting actors Joan Prather was an old friend of his Prather recalled to wensley Clarkson he was in need of friends he was depressed as was I and we were the only two young people there really it was a very lonely time for him the friends he had were using him as a door wipe to put it bluntly Prather didn't just bring friendship she brought something else too Scientology she'd been in the church for a few years and within days Travolta went from not really caring in the least to being all in prother said that he had gotten really really sick with the flu while filming and after performing a Scientology ritual called touch assist together he was hooked Prather joke I started showing him my Scientology books and he just couldn't read enough of them Travolta has been an enthusiastic member of the church ever since 40 years it's been amazing I've saved other people's lives I've saved my own life several times Travolta and Diana Highland really hit it off while they were filming Boy in the Plastic Bubble so they started dating even though she was 18 years older and playing his mother afterwards Hyland went on to Eight is Enough while Travolta cemented his heartthrob status in welcomed back Cotter in his biography wensley Clarkson revealed that the actor made a promise to his sister Ellen he said to her if I go into this relationship I'm going in all the way I'm just so scared I don't want to be hurt again sadly though Travolta would end up getting hurt very deeply Highland had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had already undergone a partial mastectomy meanwhile Travolta's career was Up Up and Away the couple started talking about marriage and children and then Travolta was filming Saturday Night Fever but Hyland's Health declined at one point during his shoot Travolta flew back to LA to spend time with her they walked through the garden together and she died the following day Travolta told people I felt the breath go out of her Travolta would later refer to that period as the hardest of his life and he admitted to channeling his grief into the character of Tony Monero in Saturday Night Fever ways of killing yourself without killing yourself in 2014 the actor recalled to The Daily Beast my girlfriend had just passed away and I wasn't aware that I was wearing the grief of her but in the scene where the girl kisses me on the cheek I start to cry her tenderness made me cry Diana Hyland died in March of 1977 and it wasn't long before Travolta would be facing another devastating loss his beloved mother Helen was very obviously ill by 1978 but the rest of the family had decided not to tell him that she had been diagnosed with cancer he only learned later that even as he had been dealing with Hyland's illness and ultimate passing his mother was already aware of her own diagnosis Helen Cecilia Travolta died in December of 1978 and John was understandably devastated he wavered in interviews and on publicity tours and he even backed out of his next film which was slated to be American Gigolo later Travolta would say I had a real dichotomy in which I had great success and at the same time great sorrow and tragedy a lot of people got frustrated with my grief and tragedy got publicized they were saying because you're famous suddenly your loss is more important than our loss but Travolta had another shock to deal with on the heels of his mother's passing six months later his father married the woman who had been her nurse in the final months of her life although Travolta and his siblings gradually came to accept the relationship his initial public response to the news was to Simply State June is a very nice lady burying a child is a parent's greatest fear and in 2009 Travolta did just that when he and his wife Kelly Preston said goodbye to their 16 year old son Jett countless media reports told and retold the story jet to have been diagnosed with a rare disorder called Kawasaki syndrome when he was a toddler suffered a seizure while the family was staying in their vacation home in the Bahamas he died after falling and hitting his head in 2014 Travolta sat down for an interview at the theater Royal jury Lane and spoke about his son's death admitting the truth is I didn't know if I was going to make it life was no longer interesting to me so it took a lot to get me better the Travolta family has continued to pay tribute to Jet and social media posts made on his birthday as if dealing with the death of a child isn't hard enough Travolta and his family also had to deal with reactions from the mainstream media and strangers online it wasn't kind to make a long story short countless Outlets used jet Travolta's death as a way to point the finger at Scientology and in particular the church's view of modern medicine according to scientology's official website practitioners are allowed to seek mainstream medical advice but drugs of any kind prescriptions included should be avoided you know drugs are notoriously a Band-Aid for various situations this led to some chatter about whether or not the Travolta family had denied jet treatment because of church teachings in 2014 The Daily Beast Astro Volta of the accusations speculation and headlines bothered him specifically they were asking him about a man who had come forward claiming he'd had a long-running romantic relationship with Travolta which the actor denied that wasn't the incident that ended up hurting him the most however when asked if he found the allegations offensive Travolta recalled I found it most offensive with the loss of my son I felt like that was the lowest I'd ever felt stay away from my family you really should with that I always felt like the media not all of the media but parts of it went too low there the rest of the stuff I can deal with but that one really made me question the whole thing after the death of jet Travolta it wasn't just the Fallout from the media and the internet chatter that his father had to deal with John Travolta soon found himself in court after two people a paramedic and a Bahama Senator were charged in connection with an alleged attempt to extort the Travolta family for 25 million dollars details as reported by the guardian were scanned but it was claimed that a parliamentarian and friend of the Travolta family said that Foul Play may have been involved they were cleared of wrongdoing but the extortion case went forward Travolta had to testify at the trial reliving the day of his son's tragic final moments the trial dragged on and on and it eventually ended in the mistrial when confidential information ended up on the radio it was also revealed that the case centered around claims that Travolta refused medical treatment for his son which he wholeheartedly denied after the mistrial the case was dismissed according to the independent it was Travolta who had asked for the dismissal saying he couldn't bear to go through another trial and even more testimony his attorney stated to the court the Travolta family has said that this matter has caused them unbelievable stress and pain and they now wish to put this whole thing behind them in July 2020 one of Travolta's Representatives confirmed a people that his wife fellow actor Kelly Preston had died two years after a diagnosis of breast cancer they had been married for a long time Travolta had proposed in 1991. despite initially asking for privacy Travolta has since been candid about his struggles with grief after losing his life partner on an episode of Kevin Hart's talk show Heart to Heart he shared how difficult it had been explaining mortality to his ten-year-old son Ben I said I could die tomorrow you could anybody can I said so let's look at life that it's part of life in an interview with Esquire Travolta addressed the question of what he's learned about grief he explained I learned that mourning someone living in mourning is something personal mourning is individual and experiencing your own journey is what can lead you to Healing Travolta has continued to post tributes to his late wife on his social media including a 2021 Mother's Day post that read in part we love and miss you happy Mother's Day [Music] foreign

Channel: Grunge

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Keywords: grunge, john travolta, heartbreaking, tragedy, grief

Id: IFgkcl_cMKE

Length: 10min 17sec (617 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 22 2023