Why Olivia is marriage shy
Olivia Questioning Her Future
By Laura Deni
Childhood memories of her parents’ divorce still haunt Olivia Newton-John. It is something she cannot forget. The thoughts linger even now to the point where they affect her own attitude to life. Interviewed between shows at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, she recalled her mother having to return to work “at a late stage in life” after the divorce. She said: “There was very little money and I was brought up to know the value of the dollar.” Against her parents’ wishes, Olivia quit school and started a singing career. Her parents and friends thought she would end up as a waitress. When she finally became successful and received her first big pay cheque she “bought a really nice coat.” “I was raised with the attitude that you shouldn’t buy anything you can’t afford, Even today I watch things. I have to pay attention to the accounts, because you become a business after a while. I am a business, but I am a product of me.”
She has thought about and, for the time being discarded, the idea of marriage. She said: “I’ve had this guy for six or seven years.” But she still has doubts. “I am afraid of marriage and I still question marriage a lot. I will get married, I know that and have children. I want that marriage to be a lasting thing. I don’t want a divorce, so I really want to know what I’m getting into. Marriage would have been more difficult for me a couple of years ago, when I was still trying to be a success.” Would she give up her career for marriage. For a second Olivia thought, hesitating slightly: “If he really loved me, he’d want me to be happy.” Is she as placid as appears? “Sometimes you get to the point where you shout out all of your pent up feelings. I can say ‘I’m sorry’ if I’m wrong. I worry a lot less now about what people think. I only care about the people who care about me, and the people I care for.”
During the filming of Grease rumours flew that she cared for John Travolta. She said: “We are the best of friends. John Travolta is a very nice fellow. He’s very mature for his age. He messes around a lot, but he’s a very together person and a terrific fellow.”
Her thoughts drift back to her Australian childhood. “You know, I used to have, on my wall at home, a beautiful knight on a white horse. One day my girlfriend told me to get rid of it, that I was silly to think that somebody was going to come along and sweep me off my feet. So I took it off my wall. Now I really don’t think about that. But when you’re 15, I think you believe there really is a knight, although he may be driving a Volkswagen.” Then she discusses lost loves: “I think you can be friends with an old lover, if both people are mature and enough time has passed, so the hurt isn’t there. I don’t know… Divorce is like a bad dream you can’t get rid of. I know the laws of society are different now, but the memory keeps coming up. The wounds are here. They’ll probably never go away and marriage still scares me.”
Olivia frankly enjoys being a success, but she is wise enough to realise she didn’t do it alone. She said: “Success takes, a little bit of everything. You have to have the right people behind you. The right song, right record company, right time and then you have to have talent, because you can’t keep being just lucky. I still have the same friends I had while coming up ladder. I don’t feel any different, actually.”
She never became involved in the Hollywood drug scene: “I don’t think drugs have anything to do with being a star. I think those stars with drug problems were probably insecure before they got there. Being in the position of being a star you have certain things to uphold, and if you can’t cope with the pressure, that’s when you turn to drugs. I know a lot of people who aren’t stars who have the same problems. I think a lot of people just can’t cope. They turn to drugs for help outwardly, instead of inwardly where it should come from.”
Since her childhood, Olivia’s turn-on to life has been through animals. She has four horses, three great danes, two irish setters, one cat, several birds and hamsters: “My biggest expense is animal food. Animals are so giving. They don’t ask for anything. They’re perfect. I think my ambition is to have a farm. One of these days I’ll have hundreds of horses.”
What Olivia has now are millions of fans: “I’d say 99 percent are really charming. They just want to say hello, want an autograph or shake hands. If you’re in a restaurant somewhere in the middle of nowhere and some kid recognises you, you’ve got to be pleased, because this is what you wanted. It’s when you lose sight of that, that’s when you get bitter. I think that’s a shame. Sometimes I really do like to be alone, because I spend a lot of my life with people, surrounded by press, fans and musicians. So there are times when I need to get myself organised, just to remember who I am.”
Most of the time Olivia is in a happy mood. She’s finally learned not to let the critics upset her: “You can’t actually please everybody, I’m given to that frame of mind. It used to upset me terribly, but I don’t get upset now. I’m accepting the fact that everybody can’t like you. However, she does hope her fans like her in the movie Grease: “I’d like to do more acting, but it really depends upon my acceptance by the public. They have to like me first. Before Grease I was offered a couple of musicals. Since Grease I’ve been offered straight roles. If it was the right thing, I’d do it. It’s like choosing a song. I’ll know it when I see it.”