The rumours have been persistent. For decades. Is John Travolta gay? Did he get it on with his co-pilot? Would he have preferred Kenickie to Sandy in Grease?
If he is, it’s his business, and he has chosen not to comment on it.
Until now.
“I don’t care that much about [the rumours]. Other people may attack it back more than I do, but I let all the media stuff go a long time ago because I can’t control it. I think that’s why it persists, to some degree,” Travolta said, in a recent interview with The Daily Beast.
John has been married to beautiful actress Kelly Preston for 13 years. They have had a seemingly happy marriage, despite tragically losing their son Jett in 2009.
But since… well, always… but particularly since a former male employee of John’s filed a lawsuit in 2012, accusing Travolta of sexual battery, he has been plagued by rumours surrounding his sexuality.
“This is every celebrity’s Achilles heel. It’s just about people wanting money. That’s all. It happens on many levels,” said the actor, referring to the lawsuit.
The worst part was that the rumours persisted in the media even around the time of his 16-year-old son’s death. Tabloids claimed that nanny Jeff Kathrein was the first to find Jett. Rather than focus on the heartbreak, the media spouted rumours that Kathrein was Travolta’s lover.
“I found it most offensive with the loss of my son,” said John, 60. “I felt like that was the lowest I’d ever felt. Sex stuff is always going to be interesting to somebody, but you stay away from family. You really should. With that, I always felt like the media — not all of the media, but parts of it — went too low there.”
Well said, John. Perhaps it’s time to give the Grease star a break, and lay the (pulp) fiction to rest.
So much family love. So much scandal. So much weird facial hair: