Life after Kelly JOHN'S HEALING HIS FAMILY

Now his late wife’s last fi lm is just coming to light, the star explains how he gets his kids through grieving and loss

- Rebekah Hebenton

With her luminous smile and kind face, Kelly Preston always had a special way of lighting up the silver screen. Since making her film debut in the early ’80s, the mother-of-three has starred in everything from Academy Award-winning films to heartwarming family flicks.

But this week, almost two years after her surprise death from breast cancer, Kelly will grace the big screen one last time as her final film, Off the Rails, arrives in Kiwi cinemas.

The world was stunned in July 2020 when John Travolta, who was married to Kelly for almost 30 years, announced that she had sadly passed away following a two-year private battle with breast cancer.

The actress, who was only 57 at the time, had managed to keep her illness so under wraps that even her Off the Rails co-stars Sally Phillips, 51, Jenny Seagrove, 64, and Dame Judi Dench, 87, had no idea that Kelly was unwell while they made the movie in 2019.

“She was so beautiful and vibrant. You never would have known,” Sally says. “She was so professional. We had a joke that Kelly would do everything.”

The film follows a group of three friends (played by Kelly, Sally, and Jenny), who set out on an adventure of a lifetime across Europe to celebrate the life of their recently deceased friend.