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Olivia News |
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Welcome to the Olivia Newton-John news page. This is a new feature for us. In order to keep our main page less cluttered we have made this special page for all the Olivia news available. Please note: The function of this page and this organization is to report ALL the Olivia news not just the good and nice things. We don't sugar coat it or tell just the half we think you should hear. We tell ALL of it. If the news about Olivia is less than flattering, we will also report it. Olivia is a human being with all the faults and flaws that the rest of us have, as well as the wonderful person we all know about. It is an injustice to her to just print the nice things and omit the less flattering things. We feel her fans are entitled to the truth even if that truth is rather painful for us all. It is also important to note that we do not make the news. You may read some things you do not want to see. The items on this and the following pages come from news releases, magazines, and other sources. It does NOT originate here. We are NOT responsible for the accuracy or content of the news. We only report it.
Congratulations
Olivia and John!
Grease star Olivia Newton-John and her health guru fiancé John
Easterling have proved their love is as deep as the ocean and as
high as a mountain, as these exclusive pictures of their hush-hush
double wedding celebrations show.
The couple sealed their union in an intimate ceremony on a Florida beach, just a week after an equally private marriage ritual high above sea level in the Andes in Peru.
The seaside service for two was held near John's home on Jupiter
Island, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean near Miami. Says Olivia: "It
was a simple Christian service performed in the morning by an
Episcopalian priest. I was the happiest woman in the world." A week
earlier, on 21 June, they had tied the knot above the Peruvian
rainforest. For Olivia and John, who have known each other for 15
years, it was a return to the same Andean peak where they first fell
in love, while watching the sunrise, 18 months ago.
John, who is the founder and chairman of natural health enterprise
Amazon Herb Company and goes by the nickname Amazon John, has been
visiting the South American rainforest for more than 30 years.
Olivia, 59, whose interest in natural health was spurred when she
battled breast cancer in 1992, had joined him on an exploratory
business trip to the region - and within days the couple had fallen
deeply in love.
Says Olivia: "It was a magical thing, Suddenly, in the peace of the
jungle, away from city noise and distractions, we just knew we were
meant to be together."
JUST THE TWO OF US
The couple, both married once-before, became secretly engaged six
months later but didn't tell a soul -not even Olivia's daughter
Chloe, 22, who was fighting anorexia at the time. "Much of our lives
have been lived out in public and we wanted to keep our relationship
very private," says Olivia. "It was precious to us, some-thing we
wanted to share with each other and enjoy without being chatted
about and followed around.
"It's the reason we kept our two ceremonies secret and didn't invite
any guests. Even Chloe didn’t know until a couple of days before we
went to Peru that John and I were to be married." The couple trekked
up the mountainside, picking wild flowers along the way to serve as
Olivia's bouquet, to be wed in a traditional ceremony in the ancient
language of Quechua. based on a profound respect for nature.
Entrepreneur John, 56, a former treasure hunter who turned to
natural remedies after he was given tea by a local tribe while
suffering from a fever, says; "The ceremony was about Mother Earth
and the bonding of us through nature. It was beautiful."
Olivia's new-found joy comes three years after her boyfriend of nine
years Patrick McDermott mysteriously disappeared during a fishing
trip off the coast of California. Heartbroken Olivia, who was in
Australia when dad-of-one Patrick set out on 30 June 2005, hired top
security experts in a bid to find him, to no avail. She has
consistently refused to speculate on his disappearance, saying only:
"This is such a personal thing for me and his family and we've
chosen not to talk about it because it's an ongoing investigation."
Patrick was not reported missing until ten days after his boat
returned and he failed to appear at a family function in early July.
Rumours that he faked his own death because of financial problems or
that he fell overboard surrounded the case. Several alleged
sightings of the missing cameraman were even reported from Mexico,
but they emerged as mistaken identity.
FAITH IN THE FUTURE
Olivia has come to terms with the past and says: "One of the most
important things I learned as a cancer patient is that, in the face
of terrifying uncertainty, the one thing I know absolutely for sure
is that love is what really matters.” The singer and actress, whose
early hits include Long Live Love and Take Me Home, Country Roads,
hit the big rime after landing the role of Sandy in the film version
of musical Grease, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe in
1979. Now almost 30 years on, she is still recording and performing
around the world and last year she was invited to be a guest judge
on US TV talent shows Grease: You're The One Thai I Want and
American Idol.
The Australian star is also a long-time campaigner on environmental
issues and a keen advocate of health awareness. She is busy raising
funds to build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in
Melbourne -she led a three-week, 228km walk along the Great Wall of
China in April in aid of the centre - and owns the Gaia Retreat and
Spa in New South Wales. Last year, her only child Chloe was stricken
with anorexia and became alarmingly frail, but has since made a good
recovery and followed her mum into the music industry.
Here, Olivia and John let us into the secrets of their magical
mystery marriages...
Congratulations, Olivia and John! Tell us about your amazing
ceremony in Peru.
Olivia: "It was very romantic and moving. We chose to marry on the
same mountain top where we had first recognized our love for each
other. It's a sacred Inca site where the ancients used to bathe in
the natural waterfalls, high above the Peruvian city of Cusco. "We
had a translator because the ceremony was in the ancient Inca
language of Quechua and conducted by a shaman, a local priest. We
had two traditional flute players and picked me date to coincide
with the winter solstice. It. meant the moon was out on one side of
the mountain as the sun rose on the other, with frost on the ground
and a giant blue sky. "The only other guests were hummingbirds,
which flew in during the ceremony. Strangely enough, John and I were
surrounded by hummingbirds the first time we visited the site and
recognized that we had fallen in love. The birds are symbols of a
good omen."
John: "The ceremony was deeply meaningful to us both because it was
held in the place where we first connected on a more profound level.
Both Olivia and I love textiles, so we had traditional Inca marriage
garb made for the wedding. I wore a woven poncho and Olivia had a
matrimonial manta, like a shawl, secured with a silver pin. She
looked exceptionally beautiful and lovely. We celebrated with an
ancient brew made from corn while the flautists played. "The
ceremony was delightful and simple and perfect for us because it
celebrated Mother Nature, something we are both profoundly engaged
with and interested in preserving."
It sounds so romantic. Why did you choose
Peru?
O: "It's the place where we first fell in love. John had invited me
to visit with him during a business trip because I was fascinated by
the country and had never been. We trekked out into the jungle with
a local tribe and. within two days, we had fallen madly, deeply in
love. 'John and I had known each other for 15 years after we were
first introduced by mutual friends. We'd kept in touch over the
years because he had one of my dog's puppies and we shared an
interest in natural remedies and preservation, but it was only amid
the wonder and magnificence of the rainforest that we realized that
we were meant to be together. "I don't know how to describe it, it
was just a knowing. We were sitting on top of the mountain, watching
the sunrise, and we looked at each other and there was just a total
recognition by us both that we were in love. That simple."
J: "Out in the simplicity of the rain-forest, without the
complications of our lives going on around us, we began to connect
on a deeper level. It was Olivia's sensitivity to the plants and
animals around us and her caring nature that resonated so strongly
with me. It was powerful and quite overwhelming and it has been an
extraordinary adventure ever since, a natural evolution of our love
and connection."
Where did you honeymoon?
O: "We spent a week exploring Cusco, the ancient Inca capital of
Peru, hiked in the mountains and toured the sacred valley of the
Incas. It was wonderful."
And you had a second marriage ceremony?
"Yes, when we returned to America. We had a Christian ceremony near
John's beachside home in Florida overlooking the Atlantic. The only
guest was the priest. We celebrated with a champagne breakfast on
the beach and then a walk with the dog. It was lovely to be able to
do something simple and spend time at John's home because we've
spent most of our relationship joining each other around the world
while we've been working. We've been to Australia and Germany twice,
to Canada, Los Angeles, New York and the Bahamas in the past 18
months, just so that we could be together."
J: "The moment we returned to our hotel after bonding on the
mountain top, we both got out our diaries and coordinated times that
we could each join the other. Obviously, we hadn't planned to fall
in love, so we both had a lot of business commitments. We were also
determined to keep our relation-ship low-key and under wraps so we
could spend time getting to know each other intimately without any
pressure or hassle. It meant that Olivia had never visited my home
on Jupiter Island until the day we married there. "We didn't, need a
big song and dance celebration of our union. For me, every day is a
celebration and the rest of our lives will be a honeymoon."
Olivia, how did John propose?
"I'd joined John in the Arizona desert where he was giving a
presentation. We were having dinner at our hotel and he proposed
formally in a very funny way, on Valentine's Day last year. We'd
been together for six months and I didn't hesitate. "There was
already an understanding between us -John had bought two South
Africa stones, one a green diamond and the other an uncut diamond
with double-intersecting crystals for me to look at some time
beforehand. I chose the uncut diamond, I instantly fell in love with
it. John had already designed the ring and sent the stone off to be
set before he made the formal proposal so it wasn't ready at the
time. It's the most beautiful ring in the world."
J: "I guess you might call it a whirlwind romance but when you know
you love somebody deep in your soul, there is no point in
hesitating, I knew the time was right and I wanted Olivia to be my
wife, to make that commitment to her and to keep her for my own, so
I formally proposed. It wasn't really planned in detail, it was kind
of spontaneous. I wasn't nervous because I was so entirely certain
of what I wanted. I followed my feelings and won my prize."
Why so secretive about your engagement and
marriage?
O: "We didn't want a big hoohah to surround our wedding and we
wanted to be able to focus entirely on each other, just the two of
us. and enjoy our ceremonies without having to worry about a lot of
complicated organization. Our time together has been precious
because we've had so little of it because of work commitments so we
wanted our ceremonies to be intimate and private. Some tiling
sacred, if you like."
J: "It was important to us to be able to let our love grow and
flourish without harassment or speculation. We were in the middle of
something profound and wonderful and we wanted to enjoy that and
explore it without any outside interference or gossip." .
How did Chloe take the news?
0: "Chloe is the only person we told, a few days before we left for
Peru. She couldn't have been more thrilled. She loves John and his
family. She is well now, happy, and delighted that I've found love
again."
What are the qualities that drew you to
each other?
"John is an extraordinary and special person, kind, sweet and
loving. He has a lot of integrity and authenticity and I fell for
him madly and deeply. He's thoughtful and attentive and giving. He's
one in a million and I couldn't be more enthralled that he is mine."
J: "I've known Olivia for a long tine and she is sensitive, caring
and loving and there is a core of healing about her which resonates
strongly with me. We tumbled into a deep, loving relation-ship, like
something we had been waiting for our whole lives, a coming together
of two halves. It was surprising and awesome and amazing. It still
is. 1 feel complete when I am with her."
Where do you plan to live?
O: "We will live between Florida, where John has a home, Australia
and Los Angeles, because Chloe is living there. We want to settle
down now and try to spend more time in one place, since we have had
to conduct a lot of our relationship in hotels!"
What does the future hold?
"Our plans are more of the same - every day is wonderful for us. It
is a great adventure and our lives are evolving in a beautiful way,
I want to help John with his work in the rainforest. He not only
searches our. new herbal remedies but is also very involved in
preservation and helping the indigenous population to retain their
culture while protecting the rainforest. I love being involved with
his work and find the Amazon exciting. "I'm also involved in the
building of a hospital in Australia, so most of our life revolves
around healing. It's how our lives came together, on a healing
connection -1 used John's products while I was recovering from
breast cancer."
J: "We want to enjoy our love for each other every day and find ways
to contribute in a healing way to the planet. We are lucky that we
have wonderful lives and are able to do that. We are going to work
together on a lot of projects and already have some in the
pipeline."
INTERVIEW: SUE EVISON PHOTOS: GREGG WOODWARD
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