Star battled ‘Mrs Travolta’ label
Wactor b October 13, 1962 d July 12, 2020
hen Kelly Preston married John Travolta in 1991, they had intended to tie the knot with a glittering celebrity bash in New York. An army of wedding planners was employed, no expense was spared and arguments about the seating plan were at an advanced stage.
Then Preston got cold feet. ‘‘The wedding got so big and crazy and when the florist’s assistant got an assistant, I was done,’’ she said. ‘‘So we ran away, eloped and went to Paris.’’
It was a high-class elopement. They fled on Concorde and were married by a Church of Scientology minister in a private ceremony at the five-star Hotel de Crillon, on the Place de la Concorde. However, it transpired that the marriage did not comply with matrimonial law so when they returned to America a week later they were forced to do it all over again in Florida.
Travolta was Preston’s fourth relationship with a Hollywood star, following a brief marriage to Kevin Gage, a romance with George Clooney and an engagement to Charlie Sheen, who, it was alleged, accidentally shot her in the arm. She claimed it left her with only a graze on the wrist, though other reports suggested her injury was more serious.
The relationship ended soon afterwards. Twenty-one years later, though, she spoke out in his defence after his very public meltdown, describing him as ‘‘such a good person’’.
Travolta also had behind him a string of relationships with actresses including Diana Hyland and Catherine Deneuve, but Preston was convinced that she had finally ‘‘found the right man’’. Despite some salacious rumours that swirled around her husband, the marriage endured for three decades as Preston devoted herself to their family before returning to acting.
‘‘I put my career on hold to be a wife and to have a child,’’ she said. ‘‘When I decided to resume acting, I had become Mrs Travolta in many people’s eyes so I had to prove myself all over again.’’
After her comeback she was cast successfully alongside some of Hollywood’s most eligible men, including Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire (1996), Kevin Costner in Holy Man (1998) and Kevin Spacey in Casino Jack (2010). An appearance with Travolta as his girlfriend in 2000’s an adaptation of a novel by L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, was less well received.
The couple met while making the 1989 film in which Preston and Travolta’s characters fall in love. By the time they came to shoot the movie, life had already imitated art. ‘‘I went for a screen test and saw him across the room,’’ she recalled. ‘‘He walked across the lobby and that was it.’’
Preston gave birth to three children.
Jett was born in 1992. Eight years later came Ella Bleu, now an actress who starred in the 2019 film alongside her father. After the birth of a second son, Benjamin, in 2010, she took another eight years off before re-emerging in the film featuring Travolta as John Gotti and Preston as the mobster’s wife, Victoria.
She worked hard to give her children a ‘‘normal’’ upbringing. ‘‘We ride bikes, we go swimming, you do art projects, you do things as a family,’’ she said. ‘‘My big places to shop are Walmart and Target. You sort of stay pretty real that way.’’
On one occasion when the family were staying at the Church of Scientology headquarters at Saint Hill, West Sussex, they booked McDonald’s for their daughter’s birthday party. It took several phone calls to convince the management that it was not a prank.
Less ‘‘real’’ was the private runway attached to one of the family’s homes in Ocala, Florida, where Travolta, a qualified pilot, parked his fleet of aircraft, including a Boeing 707.
‘‘John’s flown us all over the world –
Russia, South Africa, Australia, Tahiti, the UK, the US and the Far East,’’ Preston said. ‘‘I never get nervous when John’s piloting because he’s calm in any situation and can handle the pressure.’’
In the aftermath of 9/11 they embarked on their own private global peace initiative, with Travolta piloting the 707 ‘‘from continent to continent to bring people together and show that we couldn’t be beaten. It was very emotional and the kids travelled with us.’’
Tragedy struck in 2009 when their 16-year-old son Jett died of a seizure at their holiday home in the Bahamas. Preston reported that her faith in Scientology enabled her cope with the tragedy.
‘‘It’s a path of spiritual enlightenment. It helps rid the mind of painful experience completely. Through that, the people at my church literally held my hand and got me through.’’
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, her illness was kept secret from all but family and close friends.
She was born Kelly Kamalelehua
‘‘My big places to shop are Walmart and Target. You sort of stay pretty real that way.’’
Smith in 1962 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father died when she was three and her mother Linda (nee Ackerman), a hospital administrator, married Peter Palzis, who worked for an agricultural company.
When she was 5 he was posted to Iraq as part of a project to assist local farmers to become self-sufficient. It was right after the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbours and tensions were high. Oblivious to the dangers, she loved ‘‘being shuttled in armoured vehicles’’.
Her father’s job later took the family to Australia, where she became a model at the age of 16. At 18 she auditioned for the film but the director gave the part to the 14-year-old Brooke Shields. At the time she was still known as Kelly Palzis, but was advised to change it and adopted the stage name Preston.
Returning to the US, she completed her education in Honolulu and then as a drama student at UCLA. After several small character parts, her first significant roles came in 1985 in the romantic comedies and
Her early roles were unsatisfying; she chafed against being cast as ‘‘the blonde bimbo in one forgettable film after another, often half-naked’’, as
put it. A high point came in the 1988 comedy in which she played Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love interest.
A year later she met Travolta, although her life might have been very different had she given in to the attentions of one of his rivals.
‘‘I met Kelly Preston at a club and worked like hell to try and pick her up,’’ Donald Trump wrote in a 2009 blog post. ‘‘She was beautiful, personable, and definitely had allure. I had no idea she was married to John Travolta. In any event, Kelly wouldn’t give me the time of day. I didn’t have a chance with her, and that was that.’’ –