Olivia thinks back - Joepie

Dreamy Schoolgirl

Olivia has few good memories of her school years. In primary school, she had a hard time keeping up because she spent all day daydreaming.

As a teenager, she also did not do well in school. She felt very insecure, had few friends and was often nervous and could not speak a word in class.

But for 14-year-old Olive, a whole new world opened up. It turned out she had a good voice and she was asked to appear in a TV show in Australia. It was a huge success. Her friends were green with envy and did everything to make her life miserable.

Eventually, Olivia managed to convince her parents to take her out of that school. The only good memories she has of her childhood are the roles she got in the plays performed at her school to liven up a parent-teacher party. With her sweet voice and sweet face, she was usually chosen as the princess. This, in turn, caused problems for the teacher who directed the show, because the other girls didn't want to perform with Olivia.

After all, they were afraid of getting less attention (from the boys). Now she can laugh at the memory. After all, everyone wants to perform at her side now.

Olivia And The Boys

You wouldn't believe it, but as a teenager, Olivia didn't have much luck with the boys. Not that they didn't ask her out or anything, but she was so shy that she left her young admirers out in the cold, because she didn't know how to act.

At 15, she fell madly in love for the first time. Her chosen one was the captain of her school's soccer team. At every game, she was always present, and she always tried to get in her lover's sights. Apparently, he only cared about his sport. Until he asked Olivia to dance at a school party. She was so overwhelmed by his question that she simply said no, and there went her first love.

I cried for days over him, she says. It's a silly story, but I still think it's a nice memory.

A few months later, Olivia met a friend of her older sister Rona. He was five years older than Olivia and worked as a singer and guitarist in a local band. They secretly started meeting. He gave Olivia her first guitar lessons, taught her how to move on stage and introduced her to the other boys in the group.

I also got my first kiss from Ian, and in a car cinema, no less. It's very similar to that scene from Grease, but that's how it was with us back then. By the way, in the States and Australia, it's still the favorite meeting place for young people.

Olivia can't remember the title of the film. I wonder what happened to Ian? she says suddenly.

Fear Of Father

Bryn Newton-John, the former principal of Melbourne College, is a strict man. I've always been afraid of my father, she says. Don't get me wrong. I love my father very much, but he has been very strict with himself and his family.

The Newton-Johns can look back on a family of university graduates, professors, scientists, and even a Nobel Prize winner. My parents would have liked me to go to university, of course, but I didn't have the ambition. My heart was full of music, and no one could change that. When I went to my father, feeling nervous, to tell him that I wanted to be a singer, he said that he had always known and that I would make it that way too. So he was right.

After that it all happened quickly for Olivia. She moved to London and met Cliff Richard and John Farrar, the man who had been writing her songs for years and also played for The Shadows.

The rest of the story is well known. In 1973, Olivia met Lee Kramer in Moine Carlo. She immediately fell in love with this 24-year-old enterprising young man who returned her love.

But she had another boyfriend in London, Bruce Welch of the Shadows, and so Lee had to forget her. He couldn't do that. After several secret trysts with him, Olivia broke up with Bruce. Lee and shared her life until last year.

The success of Greases drove them apart. Olivia and Lee had less and less time for each other, and when they were on the verge of a break-up, they decided to part as friends. A few months earlier, they had seriously considered marriage.

Now I realize that neither Lee nor I were ready for marriage back then, she adds. I've learned that I'm much more ambitious than I ever thought. My dream of a farm with lots of children, dogs, and horses is over. I'm no longer the woman Lee fell in love with. There was no other option left for us.

When we ask Olivia what kind of man she prefers, she answers resolutely. Not a Hollywood type. I hate it when a guy asks me out because I'm a star. But I can't list physical characteristics. He does have to be sweet, have perseverance, and understand my career. Lee's character traits, yes, she says softly, but there are other men on this planet who possess those qualities. Be honest now. I haven't forgotten Lee for a long time and often think about what our marriage could have been like. But that's normal. When you share seven years of joy and sorrow with someone, you don't just forget that. Len will always remain a good friend, but he can never be more than that, no matter how much I long for it in lonely moments.