Secrets and lies
John and Kelly’s divorce bombshell!
Looking stone-faced, John Travolta cut a distressing figure when he was spotted on June 2 emerging from the headquarters of the Church of Scientology in Florida. He’d made the two-hour drive from his estate to attend a secret, four-hour church meeting and as he drove away in his Jaguar, “John appeared to be seriously upset,” an eyewitness says.
“At one point, when he stopped at traffic lights, it was clear he was having a very agitated conversation with someone over the phone.”
John may have every reason to feel unstrung. Sources claim he and his wife Kelly Preston, who have had one of the most enduring – yet scandalous – marriages in Hollywood, could be on the verge of calling it quits.
The shocking reason behind the split? Bombshell claims have recently emerged about John’s alleged affair with a US Navy man that began 30 years ago, when the Saturday Night Fever hunk convinced the sailor to give up his career and shack up with him at a secret hideaway!
“John and Kelly have had their rough patches over the years, with the persistent rumours about him being gay and having had multiple flings,” an insider says. “But these new claims about yet another secret lover are a huge embarrassment for Kelly, who’s had to put on a happy face for so long. I think the strain of having to live that lie has taken a heavy toll and Kelly may have finally reached her limit.”
The latest allegations against John, 63, are contained in a ledger kept by his late business manager, Hollywood producer Jonathan Krane, who claimed John “fell in love” with the sailor, whose identity has not been publicly released, in 1985 and persuaded him to move into John’s Californian estate. “While living together, they conducted their affair openly,” Jonathan wrote in an April 2002 entry – so much so that the housekeeper and cook threatened to go public and expose the actor.
“I told them I’d be able to get them $25,000 as long as they filed a confidentiality agreement and left California,” Jonathan claimed, adding that when the deal was
signed, “John hugged and kissed me and said, ‘Jonathan, you saved my life, you also saved my career.’”
According to Jonathan, who died last August, John was still hooking up with his lover even after he started dating Kelly in 1989. “John told me he wasn’t turned on by women, but ... he needed her as a ‘beard’ because of his affair,” Jonathan claimed, adding that in December 1991 – three months after marrying Kelly – John revealed he had bought the ex-sailor a home just a five-minute drive from their Florida mansion.
Shockingly, John and the man allegedly have a continuing relationship – he was reportedly seen driving into the Travoltas’ gated community recently.
“I heard Kelly became furious with John the night she found out about that visit, and told him, ‘Enough is enough!’” the insider claims. “To discover John and his ex-sailor may have arranged a recent meet-up in her own home ... It seems like that was the final nail in the coffin.” A rep for the couple denies this story.
Wifeinstrife
Long-suffering Kelly, 54, hasn’t been a complete angel either. While coming close to “breaking under the pressure” of being married to John, she strayed with Kevin Costner while they filmed ForLoveof
theGame in 1998, according to Jonathan, who claimed Kelly admitted to him she had the affair. Another source claims that when John found out, he jealously confronted Kevin on the set and they had “a violent showdown”.
Otherwise, Kelly has staunchly stood by John and helped to keep up what Jonathan insisted was the facade of a normal marriage, despite John being hit publicly by one gay scandal after another.
A firestorm of publicity erupted in 2006, when John was photographed kissing his children’s male nanny Jeff Kathrein on the mouth outside his private jet.
Six years later, John was slapped with lawsuits by multiple male massage therapists, who claimed he sexually propositioned them.
A bigger bombshell hit in 2014, when John’s former pilot, Doug Gotterba, claimed he’d had a long-running affair with the actor from 1981 to 1986 – and announced he was writing a juicy tell-all.
John reportedly paid Doug $1.7 million to prevent him from publishing the exposé, but that didn’t stop the pilot from spilling sordid details about their alleged liaison, which he said began when John gave him a massage that “turned into something else”.
During romantic trips to Hawaii, Africa and Europe, “I’d stay in the room next to John in luxury hotels, but he would ask me to join him in his suite and we’d spend the nights together,” Doug claimed, adding that John “tried to get me to make a sex tape with him, but I refused”.
Kelly has had to deal with whispers John also cheated with women – including rumours he and Kirstie Alley hooked up while filming Look Who’s Talking in 1989 – which she denied.
If John and Kelly split, divvying up their $378 million fortune could get sticky. “John earned the bulk of the money, but they’ve been married for so long Kelly would be entitled to half of it,” says the insider. John would likely insist on keeping their Ocala compound, which has an airstrip and two hangars where he stores his beloved jets, while Kelly is keen to move to LA.
“I think they’ll be able to divide their assets without things turning nasty. John has always been very generous with Kelly.”
As for their children, Ella, 17, and Benjamin, six, the insider adds, “hashing out custody is rarely easy in Scientology divorces, but Kelly is a devout and outspoken follower of the church, which will make it easier for her and John to reach an agreement.
“Despite everything that has gone down, they’ll always be friends. There really is a lot of love between them.”