John Travolta Opens His Heart About Grief, Love and Moving Forward After Losing Wife Kelly Preston and Son Jett

Superstar John Travolta has had more loss in his life than any heart should suffer, and it has taken him many years to learn to deal with his gut-punching grief.

The Grease icon’s eldest son, Jett, who was autistic, suffered a seizure and died at age 16 in 2007 during a family vacation in the Bahamas. Five years later, John was still in pain, admitting that losing Jett was “the worst thing that’s ever happened in my life. The truth is, I didn’t know if I was going to make it.”

John still marks Jett’s April 13 birthday, recently posting on social media a photograph of him hugging him as a small boy, writing, “Happy birthday, Jett — I miss you so much. Love you forever.”

Then in 2020, John’s beloved wife of 28 years, Kelly Preston, lost her private two-year battle with breast cancer at age 57, leaving him to raise their surviving children — Ella, now 25, and Benjamin, 14 — on his own.

And that’s not all: John’s girlfriend Diana Hyland died in 1977 and good friends Olivia Newton-John and Kirstie Alley both passed in 2022 — all three dying of cancer.

But these days the 71-year-old dad “is at a place in his life where he’s very grateful for what he’s accomplished, but he also finds himself deeply changed,” says an insider. “He says it’s a grief he’ll carry forever — and he’s OK with that.”

John has learned to process his pain the hard way.

“I learned that mourning someone, living in grief, is very personal,” John says. “Grief is personal and finding your own path is what could lead to healing. It’s different than someone else’s journey.”

The insider says that while the Pulp Fiction actor is “doing really well, he still misses Kelly dearly. It pains him that Ella and Benjamin don’t have her in their lives.”

John advises that the most important thing someone can do to help others who are grieving “is allow them the space to live it and not complicate their journey with your own.”

His devotion to Kelly has made “dating a tricky thing for John,” says the insider. “He loved Kelly so deeply, and even though it’s been years, he still can’t see himself with anyone else.”

Still, the source continues, John’s friends believe “there’s a special someone out there for him. Kelly would want that. He deserves to be happy and in love again.”