Olivia's Family Therapy
Olivia Newton-John and husband Matt Lattanzi took their seven-year-old daughter Chloe along to see a therapist with them to help the youngster understand what was going on as her mother battled cancer.
As a result, Matt says, Chloe has like the rest of the family been able to come to terms and understand as best she can, what has been happening to her mother during the past traumatic year.
Matt, who has just wound up his role in the Aussie soap Paradise Beach, reveals that both he and Olivia were very worried about how Chloe would react when she learned doctors had discovered her mother had breast cancer. It was a painful time for the entire family, followed by surgery for Olivia and then seven months of chemotherapy.
“She’s fine about it now”, Matt says. “While we were all so very positive about the effect on Chloe, we could still see that deep down she was naturally upset about it. You can’t hide every thing. We talked to her about it, and to help her get her emotions out, we took her along with us to see the therapist.”
“Chloe is doing well because she sees how well her mum is doing.”
The family had gone though difficult times even before doctors found Livvy had breast cancer. In fact, not long before Livvy was diagnosed, the family was shocked by the death from kidney cancer of Colette Chuda, the five-year-old daughter of Livvy’s best friend.
Now, Matt says, he and Livvy would encourage anyone to seek professional help counselling and support groups for every member of a family hit by a life-threatening disease.
“Of course, the attention was on Livvy and rightly so,” says Matt “But there was a tremendous strain on all of us. We had to be strong and put on a brave front.”
Matt says he has never seen Olivia who has recovered fully happier than she is now, living stress-free on their NSW property. “She’s blissful. She grows apples and avocados and drives Chloe to school. She’s very relaxed. living a very normal life. She likes staying home while I work.”
A year after her bout with cancer, Olivia’s future is once again bright. She and Matt even plan to go to Bolivia for the first of a series of documentaries for Australia’s Beyond 2000 group.
By Ivor Davis