Newton-John kept cancer news from daughter

24/09/2007 - 16:57:08
Olivia Newton-John refused to tell her daughter about her cancer diagnosis because the youngster had just lost a friend to the disease.

The singer's daughter Chloe Lattanzi was just eight when Newton-John learned she had breast cancer in 1992, and she couldn't bring herself to tell the youngster.

The Grease star says: "She had lost her best friend to cancer six months before and it seemed the wrong thing to tell her… because to her she associated cancer with death."

But Lattanzi eventually learned about her mother's health crisis from school pals.

Newton-John, who is now cancer-free, tells US news show Entertainment Tonight: "Some kids went up to her (and said), 'Ah, your mum has cancer.'

"She came running home from school and said, 'Why didn't you tell me…?' I said, 'Because I didn't want to worry you,' and she said, 'Mum, I would've taken care of you."