Kelly Preston, wife of John Travolta, dies of cancer
(CNN Spanish) - The American actress Kelly Preston died on July 12, 2020 after a two-year fight against breast cancer. She was 57 years old.
Preston, whose real name was Kelly Kamalelehua Smith, was born on October 13, 1962 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The actress is remembered for her participation in dozens of television series and also in films like 'Twins', 'Jerry Maguire' and 'For Love of the Game'.
Preston studied acting at the University of Southern California before landing some roles on American television in series like 'CHiPs' and 'Roseanne.' This led to her playing the character of Mary Lee in the television series 'For Love and Honor'.
In 1988, he came to Hollywood playing Marnie Mason, the love partner of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in the comedy 'Twins', which also co-starred Danny DeVito.
- Kelly Preston, wife of John Travolta, died of breast cancer
John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston in a 2018 image. (ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP via Getty Images)
That year she met her second and last husband, John Travolta, during a screen test for the movie "The Experts", in which she played the character Bonnie.
The actress had starring roles in some classic 90s romantic comedy such as "Jerry Maguire" and "For Love of the Game."
In 2009 she starred in the music video for the song 'She Will Be Loved' by Maroon 5, in which a young man falls in love with his girlfriend's mom. The woman (played by Preston) receives no love from her husband and is mistreated by him, so she turns to Adam Levine for comfort.
Since the birth of her youngest son Benjamin in 2010, Preston acted less. She was a guest star on the television series 'CSI: Cyber'.
Preston was last photographed at a public event in 2018. That year she walked the red carpet for the premiere of her movie 'Gotti,' in which her husband John Travolta played the late mobster John Gotti, and she his wife, Victory.
His family
Preston and Travolta escaped to Paris to get married in 1991 after their New York wedding plans became unmanageable.
"The wedding got so big and so crazy," Preston said on the "Live with Kelly and Ryan" show in 2018. "And when the florist's assistant needed an assistant, I thought: enough is enough."
But then they discovered that they had to be residents of Paris for the marriage to be legal, so upon returning, they remarried in the United States.
In 1992, the couple welcomed their first child, Jett, who died in 2009 after a seizure, while the family was vacationing in the Bahamas.
In 2000, her daughter Ella was born and in 2010, the youngest, Benjamin.
Preston told Health magazine that she would be a mother again at 48 and that she and Travolta had been trying to conceive.
"When I found out I was pregnant, I stayed on the floor," People magazine reported that he told Health. “I slipped out of bed and then came back and woke Johnny up in bed. We both started crying. It was wonderful".
Preston was married to actor Kevin Gage from 1985 to 1987 and had notable romances with George Clooney and Charlie Sheen (with whom she briefly engaged) before marrying Travolta.
Kelly Preston and George Clooney: Before she married John Travolta, Preston dated Heartbreaker Clooney between 1987 and 1989. The actor couple even lived together with their pot-bellied pig, Max, whom Clooney continued to raise after their breakup.
Preston and Travolta have been very high-profile members of the Church of Scientology and in 2019 US Weekly reported that the couple discussed the loss of their son Jett and how the church had helped them cope with the situation.
In reporting the death of his wife, Travolta said that he will be with his family to cope with this and that, therefore, they would not hear from him for a while.
- With information from Alta Spells and Lisa Respers France.
Kelly Preston
