John Travoltasays grieving after his wifeKelly Preston’s death “has been a personal, private journey.”
In an interview withEsquireMexicopublished earlier this month, the 67-year-old actor shared what he had learned sincePreston’s death in July 2020at the age of 57 from breast cancer.
“I learned that mourning someone, living in grief, is very personal,” Travolta said. “Grief is personal and finding your own path is what could lead to healing. It’s different than someone else’s journey.”
Travolta, a father of three children with Preston, said, “The most important thing you can do to help people going through grief is allow them the space to live it and not complicate their journey with your own.”
“Like, imagine if you lose someone and you’re very sad at the funeral, and another person comes up to you who is feeling even sadder and then doesn’t leave space for you to feel your grief,” thePulp Fictionstar continued. “It becomes two ships plummeting to the bottom together. That’s my experience. Because, although it’s nice to have company, sometimes it turns you into someone helping the other person instead of putting in the work of overcoming the sense of loss and grief.”
John Travolta and Kelly Preston.CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/Getty
“You have no idea how many people have come up to me… and afterward I’ve felt saturated with everyone else’s pain that I didn’t know what to do,” Travolta revealed. “The first thing you should do while going through grief is go somewhere where you can truly mourn, with no interruptions.”
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The actor has mourned his wife’s loss in private with his daughterElla, 21, and sonBen, 10. Travolta and Preston were also parents to sonJett, who died at 16 in January 2009.
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“I will be taking some time to be there for my children who have lost their mother, so forgive me in advance if you don’t hear from us for a while. But please know that I will feel your outpouring of love in the weeks and months ahead as we heal,” he concluded.
“It’s fame that trained me for 2020,” Travolta toldEsquireMexico. “When you are famous, you live in a kind of plastic bubble, cloistered like an oyster. You can’t abandon it if you want to go out on a normal day to explore life. Part me of was already familiar with this kind of life. Fame is what has made me prepare for these rare times that we live in.”
“Life is movement and a journey; what you leave behind in people, I guess that’s your legacy,” he added. “How they interpret my life will be different for each one. And that’s okay, because that will be me.”
source: people.com
