Olivia Newton-John explains why she kept her second cancer battle secret: 'It's my life'
Olivia Newton-John has had fought cancer multiple times. The singer and actress went public with her initial breast cancer diagnosis in 1992 and she did so again with her third diagnosis in 2018. But there was a second bout in 2013 that she kept secret from her family, friends and fans. Now she's explaining why.
"Because of the speculation, which happened at times," she told Natalie Morales on Friday's episode of the "Today" show. "I just decided I wanted to go through it myself. It was just a decision that I would keep it to myself at the time."
In 2013, doctors found cancer in Newton-John's shoulder after she was involved in a car accident, a diagnosis Newton-John did not reveal to the public until years later.
"The first time I talked about it, and the second time I thought I didn't really need to share this, it's not something I need to share with people," she told Australia's Channel Seven in September 2018 regarding her decision to keep her diagnosis a secret "It's my life and I decided to keep it to myself."
Newton-John changed course in 2017 when she revealed her breast cancer had metastasized to her lower back.
“I just decided I wanted to go through it myself.” @olivianj explains to @nmoralesnbc why she chose to keep her third time fighting cancer to herself and the treatments she’s using to manage her cancer pic.twitter.com/bZo0hEvJvz
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 8, 2019
In January 2019, she denied rumorsthat she was on her deathbed, telling her followers in an Instagram video, "I just want to say the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated, to quote a very famous quote, and I’m doing great and I want to wish all of you the happiest, healthiest 2019 that’s possible."
Recalling that period, Newton-John told Morales, "They were telling me I was dying, and I thought, 'I don't feel like it, I'm feeling pretty good.' "
More recently, she has shared that she has benefited from medicinal cannabis after coming to the decision that "I would use everything I could to get stronger.”
She told People that her husband, John Easterling, "grows the plants and makes them into liquid for me," adding, "I take drops maybe four to five times a day.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Olivia Newton-John explains why she kept her second cancer battle secret: 'It's my life'
