Kelly Preston’s death from breast cancer on Sunday was a tragic ending to her 29-year marriage to John Travolta, who had three children: Ella Bleu, Benjamin and the late Jett, who died in 2009 of a seizure.
Preston’s death at 57, unfortunately, is not the first time that 66-year-old Travolta has lost another important person to breast cancer.
In 1977, actress Diana Hyland, with whom the actor had been seriously dating for a year, died of the same cause. At 41, she was 18 years older than Travolta, 23, and somehow scandalously played her mother in the television movie “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.”
As soon as the cameras rolled, Travolta was wounded.
“I thought he was in love before, but he wasn’t,” Travolta told People magazine in 1977. “From the moment I met her, it drew me in. We were like two maniacs talking all the time on the set of ‘Bubble.’ After a month it became romantic. “
Hyland never had the career that her young superstar boyfriend would continue to enjoy. Already the star of television’s “Welcome Back, Kotter”, Travolta would make “Saturday Night Fever” in 1977 and the iconic musical film “Grease” in 1978, a stretch of extreme success that would never repeat.
At the time of her death, Hyland was primarily known for her television roles as “Peyton Place” and “Eight is Enough”. She also had a major role on Broadway, playing Heavenly in Tennessee Williams’ “Sweet Bird of Youth” opposite Paul Newman. Still, she was a well-regarded actress that many believe would have done great things.
Hyland was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1977, and despite undergoing a mastectomy, her prognosis worsened. Dedicated to the end, Travolta was with Hyland when she died and told People that “she felt her breath catch.”
The actor never thought of his first romance as an adventure.
“I chose a house, and Diana and I were planning to move in right after this movie,” he told People. “If she were alive, it is very possible that I would have married her.”
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