A golden sun sets behind thunderheads and rolling hills. To the east, a double rainbow arcs across a darkening sky. It feels like a blessing. Rainbows are special talismans for Olivia Newton-John. They’ve lit up significant moments of her life and offered her hope. “Rainbows are special to me,” she says simply, stopping to look up, acknowledge the beauty in the sky and snap a picture on her phone.
This is an extraordinary time in Olivia’s life. Last night, she celebrated her 70th birthday. Some of the people she holds dearest partied on the patio and by the pool at friend Gregg Cave’s house, nestled in farmland and forest just west of Byron Bay and across the valley from the Gaia Retreat & Spa, which he, Olivia and friends founded 14 years ago.
Gregg, who calls her “Blondie”, has known Olivia for 37 years and plainly adores her. He went shopping at the local markets for her birthday and came back with a brooch and a shawl, but he insists (in the words of reggae star Peter Tosh) that she needs “nothing but love”. Another dear friend created a birthday pavlova filled with lemon curd and cream and decorated with mauve and violet flowers. And, most crucially, Olivia’s husband, John Easterling, and her daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, who is 33 and also a singer and an actor, were here to celebrate with her. There’s a lot of love in the air.
But the party is 12 months late. Last year, when Olivia really turned 70, she spent her birthday in her own Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Melbourne, recovering from a fractured sacrum brought about by a weakening of her bones associated with treatment for stage-four cancer. Her hospital stay triggered tabloid reports of her death, to which Olivia responded with an online video in which she laughed that “rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated”. But the rumours did hurt.
この記事は The Australian Women's Weekly の December 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は The Australian Women's Weekly の December 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
Take me to the river
With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.
The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
