Matt finally weds his Cindy
In a beautifully romantic gesture, Olivia Newton-John's ex husband, Matt Lattanzi, slipped a ring inside a rose to propose to his long-term girlfriend
Last May, Matt Lattanzi tied a single artificial rose to the rosebush in the back garden of his Malibu home. The only bloom on a bare bush, he was sure his Kiwi girlfriend, Cindy Jessup. would spot it.
Matt, 40, had slipped a ring inside it to surprise her. But when he went to ask Cindy, 28, to help in the garden, her first reaction was to say no!
“That’s because I’m usually lugging bricks around out there!” she laughs.
“But when I did go outside, I said: “On look, a rose has bloomed!” I went up close for a better look and I saw it was obviously fake. Then I realised what it was and opened it up and saw the ring. I just felt warm all over. We looked at each other with tears in our eyes.”
While there was no formal marriage proposal for Cindy and Matt - who were already in a committed relationship - the ring, symbolised their ultimate decision to marry. (Matt’s 11-year marriage to Olivia Newton-John ended in 1996.)
“Part of our individuality and what we are about, is that Cindy wasn’t going to hang around and sacrifice her career”, Matt says cheerfully.
“Even for love” she chimes in. So, Matt continues, “the ring clinched it. Then it was like, all right, we’re getting married.”
On June 25, Matt and Cindy did exactly that. The no-frills civil ceremony in Malibu, with no friends or family in attendance, was just the way they wanted it.
“We signed the papers, I gave Cindy the ring, we kissed and that was it”. Matt laughs.
The couple see eye to eye on everything, including the fact that marriage is about a deep spiritual commitment, not an event.
“I was never the kind of girl that dreamed of a white wedding”, Cindy explains. “When I was 16. I got to dress up in a white dress for my debutante ball and I think that got it out of my system. I’ve always thought all the money and fuss associated with weddings was a little ridiculous.”
After their informal formalities, the newly-weds went out for a Mexican meal together. Later, there was a party in Oregon with Matt’s family.
“But it wasn’t a big thing, there’s nothing formal about my family,” says Matt, who is one of 10 children.
Cindy, whose mother still lives in New Zealand while her father lives in Sydney, has two sisters-one is a doctor, the other a veterinarian. But there are no plans for a big party back home.
“My family has never been bogged down in tradition either”, Cindy explains. “They just want me to be happy. Next time I go back, we might all go out to dinner.”
Cindy is practical, a realist and, like Matt, totally down-to-earth.
Self-professed soulmates, they met on a bike ride in Australia in October 1993.
Matt, who had just finished making the TV show Paradise Beach, had decided to do some mountain bike riding. Cindy, an avid cyclist, belonged to the bicycle club in Lismore, NSW, near Olivia and Matt’s farm.
At the time, Matt was still happily married and Cindy was also in a serious relationship, but they struck up a casual friendship.
“We had similar views about things and we just clicked,” says Cindy, then a sports science student. “I remember thinking, that’s a neat person,”
“But I didn’t really think I’d see Cindy again after that”. Matt admits.
In 1994, their paths crossed again through bike riding. Cindy told Matt of her plan to do a 5000km cycle ride across Australia for a charity. Breast cancer was making headlines in the news and Matt offered to help and to mention it to Olivia, who had suffered from breast cancer.
“Cindy came over to the farm and we had some photos taken. Livvy decided to get involved and help support her. That was the first time I really got to spend some time with Cindy and see what she was about”, Matt says.
“I thought she was a great person.”
The picture began to change in the spring of 1995. Matt, who was due to start work on his TV sports show. Pepsi Max Extremists, had decided to make a permanent move to Australia.
“What nobody knows,” he says, “is that when I moved to Australia, Livvy and I had decided to separate. At the time. it was a tentative separation. We weren’t sure where this was going. It was a separation, just in the geographical sense. I was confused about things and needed to go and do this work on my own. That was the driving force behind it.”
“But toward the end of ‘95 we had decided not only to separate geographically, but emotionally.”
Cindy’s circumstances had also changed - she had broken up with her boyfriend.
Finding themselves both single, Matt and Cindy say they suddenly saw one another in a whole new light.
It was dramatic, Matt recalls, because you’re seeing this person as one thing, and then all of a sudden you see them as another. And I had to make Olivia aware of that.
Olivia didn’t know Cindy well, they had only met briefly.
“She is a wonderful person and I have great admiration and respect for her, but we never spent enough time together to be close”, Cindy says. “Olivia and I were actually divorced in December 1996”, Matt says, “but we had an understanding about where it was going by the beginning of ‘96.”
“Livvy and I were living as separate people then. The marriage was still official, formally, but not between Livvy and I. Of course, the way we are, we’re not going to run out and tell everybody. We’ve never done that. We’ve just lived our lives.”
That year, Cindy and Matt grew closer after she had a bad cycling accident, witnessed by Matt.
“I rode straight into the back of a parked car”, she explains. “I tore my whole lip off, I was a mess for quite a while. And that was very much a bonding thing for us because I was so swollen and horrible.”
“Disfigured’s the word”, Matt chuckles. “I took care of her. She couldn’t smile for months.”
In the early days of their romance, Matt deliberately kept things low-key.
“If Cindy and I had been blatant and very public and had seen each other all the time,” he says, “there’s no way we would have escaped the publicity. We were cautious about how we were going to do this.”
“But at some point you just have to decide, the hell with it. Things have to come out.”
The turning point came when Matt moved back to the US in December ‘97. He so hated being away from his daughter Chloe (from his marriage with Olivia) that, he says, he just couldn’t stand it anymore.
The next northern summer, Cindy spent a month with Matt and his family in Portland, Oregon. Being apart for months had only heightened their deepening feelings for one another.
Although Cindy returned to her studies in Australia, she was back visiting Matt again in November.
“When it came time to fly home to her family in Australia for Christmas. she couldn’t do it, and I didn’t want her to” Matt laughs.
“I knew I would be disappointing my family”, Cindy says, “and it was a horrible decision, but I had to do what my heart told me.”
Not that Matt’s excitement about his new love negated his heartache over the breakdown of his long relationship with Olivia. (Olivia is happily involved with boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, 43, a lighting director on commercials and videos).
“There is a mourning period after a divorce,” says Matt, who met Olivia in 1979 while they were filming Xanadu. With so much shared history, and because they have their beautiful daughter in common, there is a deep bond.
Matt’s respect and love for Chloe and Olivia also meant he didn’t want to rush things with Cindy.
“Cindy came in very slowly in respect for what Olivia and I had for all those years”, Matt says.
Nevertheless, Matt was deeply involved with Cindy and when she had to return to Australia, as dictated by her visa, the separation was a terrible wrench.
“We had to make a decision,” Matt explains. I said: “This is it, you’re either going back or we’re going to get married. Marriage it was.”
“Livvy and Chloe were the only ones I told before the wedding,” Matt says. “Livvy was very happy for me and Chloe was very excited.”
“Because of the time we took and the respect we had for the whole situation, Olivia, Cindy and I can be in the same room and feel very comfortable. And we have been. I continue to enjoy a wonderful relationship with Olivia.”
“We talk and laugh just like a married couple would, but we’re not married. I am so fortunate that we can be such great friends, I know that’s not always the case. You have to work for that. Of course. there’s sadness and pain. But it starts to dwindle and I couldn’t ask for a better outcome.”
Olivia is a beautiful, talented, courageous woman, who is greatly loved and admired by millions. A tough act to follow? Cindy insists she has never felt as if she’s living in Olivia’s shadow.
“She’s just Chloe’s mum and she’s a wonderful woman”, says Cindy. ‘It’s never been a big deal.”
When Cindy was labelled ‘the other woman’ in some reports about the demise of Matt and Olivia’s manage. she took it all in her stride.
“I just laughed,” she says, “People I know and care about knew that was wrong. I guess you have an inner knowledge of your integrity, and I know that everything I did was totally fine. I didn’t come between them in any way.”
Matt’s priority has always been Chloe’s happiness and he was especially anxious that she be comfortable with his new relationship.
“I’d had all of these nightmares about the stereotypical relationship where the stepmum is the monster,” he explains. “So you can’t imagine the relief I felt when I saw how well Chloe took to Cindy!”
“Right from the very start, Chloe and I got along really well”, says Cindy, who enjoys going rollerblading with Matt’s daughter. “She’s absolutely beautiful and now we have developed a relationship where I’m like an older sister, but maybe a bit more than that. So we have a really nice bond.”
Marrying Matt hasn’t changed Cindy’s own career goals. She works in a rehabilitation centre as a physical therapy assistant, is building a clientele as a massage therapist and plans to study physical therapy.
“I get a kick out of seeing how professional she is,” Matt smiles. Matt and Cindy are incredibly in tune on everything. “We have a sense of humour about life,” Cindy says, “and we try not to take everything too seriously.”
“We also respect each other’s individuality. We don’t crowd each other. We let each other grow as two independent people. We have freedom with trust and respect. We’re very open and honest about everything.”
Matt and Cindy live in Malibu in a home Matt bought 18 months ago. “It has three bedrooms and a view of the ocean,” Matt says, “I’m going to fix it up, then sell it.”
Both Matt and Cindy would also like a home in Oregon, but, says Matt: “right now, I need to be around Chloe and that’s where I’m staying. However, he and Cindy may live in Australia or New Zealand after Chloe grows up.”
“Once you’ve lived in Australia, there is this romantic tie where I know I always have to go back,” Matt says.
By Sue Russell. Pictures: Michelle Day