Though Olivia Newton-John knew that the sun was setting on her incredible life, she didn’t let this dull her shine in her final moments. “The last words she could say to me was, ‘My sunshine,” said Chloe Lattanzi when she and Olivia’s widower, John Easterling, sat down for an interview for the Feb. 17 episode of Today. Chloe, 37, also said, “right before [Olivia] lost her ability to speak, she was making jokes.”
EXCLUSIVE: The husband and daughter of Olivia Newton-John open up to TODAY’s @hodakotb in their first television interview since the star’s passing six months ago. https://t.co/6CbHvvOd3W pic.twitter.com/SY4hMqNUxh
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 17, 2023
Olivia passed away at the age of 73 in August 2022, after a decades-long battle with breast cancer. She had been treated multiple times for the disease before succumbing to it. Olivia died “peacefully” while surrounded by her family, and the loss still hurts her daughter. “I love my mom more than anything,” Chloe said in the interview. “She’s my mama, you know? She’s not Olivia Newton-John to me, but I’m so glad that she was Olivia Newton-John for so many people.”
Chloe said that all the love and support she’s received from her mother’s fans in the six months since her death had helped her during the grieving process. “It actually has been a life raft. It has felt like a big hug from the universe,” she told Today. “And I’m very grateful for all of the people who reached out to us and extended their heart and their connection.”
John Easterling, who married Olivia in 2008, said he still feels his wife’s presence around him “Late at night or early in the morning.” He added, “And then you’ll know I’ll just be walking around the house or throwing the ball for the dogs and just speak to her out loud.”
“A guy I was flying with said, ‘You know, John, when you’re lucky enough to have found your true soul mate, and you share a heart, when one passes, the other has the obligation to live life for both.’ And that was very empowering and very powerful for me, and, you know, and gave a way forward,” said Sterling.
“Every day, I miss Olivia terribly. And yet every day, I’m really super grateful that I had 15 wonderful years with this extraordinary human being,” he said in the interview. “She had the willpower, even in her most difficult times, to really bring in the light and to bring in the love. And she was who she was all the way through.”
One month after Olivia’s death, her Grease costar and dear friend John Travolta celebrated what would have been her 74th birthday by sharing a photo of them singing” “You’re the One That I Want” at the end of the 1978 movie. “Happy Birthday, My Olivia,” wrote Travolta.