The day after Christmas, Radar Online reported that Australian star Olivia Newton-John — who in 2018 confirmed she was battling cancer for a third time — was clinging to life, desperate to hang on long enough to see her only child, Chloe Lattanzi, marry in the New Year.
"Olivia's bodily functions appear to be shutting down, but she refuses to let go until she makes it through Chloe's wedding day," an insider alleged to Radar.
Now multiple people close to the 70-year-old "Grease" star have come forward to deny that she is anywhere near death's door.
Olivia's U.S. publicist, Michael Caprio, told news.au.com as part of a report published Down Under on Jan. 3 that the allegations are "hilarious."
Olivia's social media manager, Randy Slovacek, also shot down the claims that she's taken a downturn. "We have stated over and over again publicly she's feeling better," he told Australia's Herald Sun newspaper, ETCanada reported. "People just seem to want to believe some dramatic turn."
Further, Olivia gave niece Tottie Goldsmith permission to speak publicly about the singer-actress's health. Tottie told Australia's Seven Network, "You can rest assured she is going nowhere and in really good health. A sick rumor." On Jan. 2, Tottie posted a photo of herself with her aunt, captioning it, "Just giving you the heads up that Livvy is in good health, so let's leave that distressing rumor where it belongs."
The "Xanadu" star successfully fought breast cancer for the first time in 1992 and went into remission. In 2017, she revealed that her cancer had returned, this time in the base of her spine.
Then in September 2018, she publicly shared for the first time in an interview with Australia's "Sunday Night" that her current fight is actually her third cancer battle, as she learned in 2013 that the disease had returned, resurfacing in her shoulder. She decided at the time that she didn't want to publicly announce the recurrence.
Olivia also revealed she was treating the tumor discovered in 2017 with a mix of modern medicine, such as radiation, as well as more natural therapies including a marijuana derivative.
"I'm still treating it, and I'm treating it naturally and doing really well," she said on "Sunday Night," explaining that she's cut sugar from her diet and takes cannabis oil — which is legal in California, where she lives on a ranch outside Santa Barbara with second husband John Easterling, the founder and president of the Amazon Herb Company, whom she married in 2008.
"In California, it's legal to grow a certain amount of plants for your own medicinal purposes. So [my husband] makes me tinctures… they help with pain," she explained. "I'm very lucky that I live in a state where it's legal and that I have a husband that is a plant-medicine man."
Olivia said in September that she's confident she will once again beat the disease. "I believe I will win over it, and that's my goal," she said.
She also expressed gratitude for her life. "You know, there are other people out there doing much, much worse than me. And, um, I'm a very privileged person, and I'm very aware of that," she said. "I live in this beautiful place. I have a wonderful husband. I have all the animals that I adore. I have an incredible career. I have nothing, really, to complain about."