News of her passing travelled across the Pacific in the cold, starry, early morning skies of August 9 this year. Her husband, John Easterling, broke the news. Dame Olivia Newton-John had passed away peacefully, surrounded by much-loved family and friends, at her ranch in California. It was not a shock – Olivia had embarked on a life-changing journey with cancer 30 years earlier – but it was heartbreaking for those who loved her, and here in Australia, perhaps that was all of us.
At The Weekly, many of us had personal memories to share. Chrissy Iley, who had interviewed her for the magazine in 2018, remembered arriving at the ranch to find Olivia in the kitchen, whipping up a batch of pancakes for them to share, made with gluten-free flour and freshly laid eggs that she’d collected from her hens that morning. “She was so lovely,” Chrissy said.
Later, Mattie Cronan, The Weekly’s style director, was invited to stay for dinner because the shoot had run over time and Olivia was worried there would be no restaurants open late in town. “She was so welcoming,” Mattie says, “wonderfully warm, exactly as you would expect.”
The Australian Women’s Weekly nurtured a career-long friendship with Olivia.
The first mention of Olivia I can find in the magazine is in our February 1966 Teenagers’ Weekly supplement. Young Aussie pop stars were captured celebrating the 16th birthday of one of their number, Lynne Randell. And right beside the birthday girl is a wide-eyed 17-year-old Olivia (in a sleeveless, white go-go dress) with then boyfriend Ian Turpie.
In 1971, we celebrated her first album, , with her first cover. And she was back on the cover a year later, with French heart-throb Sacha Distel, with whom she was sharing a West End stage. By then she’d transformed somewhat from Melbourne girl-next-door
