Olivia Newton-John’s secret legacy revealed
After her terminal cancer diagnosis, Olivia Newton-John reportedly began selling off almost all of her real estate portfolio in a plan to leave a lasting legacy.
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Olivia Newton-John reportedly sold off most of her real estate portfolio a year after she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer to invest in her cancer research foundation and wellness centre.
The singer and actress had also listed her California horse ranch for USD $5.4 million in 2019 before deciding to spend her remaining days at her “heaven on earth”, according to The New York Post.
“Olivia loved helping people. She spent the last two decades of her life giving back,” a source close to Newton-John told The Post. “She wanted to leave behind something that would last, and something that her daughter, too, could benefit from.”
Over the years, the singer, actor and entrepreneur has invested in her Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital. She established the facility in 2012 for $189 million -- with state and federal funding plus philanthropic support bringing it to fruition.
In 2005, she co-founded the award-winning Gaia Retreat & Spa -- a health retreat in the Bunjalung Country of Byron Bay.
The Gaia Retreat & Spa was sold for “about $30 million”, according to the Adelaide Advertiser, in October 2021 to Andrew and Nicola Forrest, which Newton-John said at the time would “preserve our legacy”.
“After 16 years, we are excited to pass the baton to new visionaries to nurture and grow this majestic hinterland oasis -- a place which has been so deeply embraced as a ‘home away from home’ for so many on their wellness and healing journey,” Newton-John said last year.
She also launched the Olivia Newton-John Foundation to fund research into kinder ways to treat cancer, to prevent cancer, and to live well with cancer.
“So, all those things, I believe, we will eventually see a world beyond it where it’s just treated as any other illness that you can kind of control and live well with and, of course, hopefully cure it,” she said in a 2020 interview with Forbes. “Living well is something that I do, and I’m hoping that I can help others do that.”
In October 2021, records obtained by The Post show Newton-John officially transferred full ownership of the Santa Barbara estate to her husband, John Easterling, who refinanced the mortgage with USD$2.5 million left on the home.
“She was in a lot of pain, but she was a fighter,” the source explained. “The place was her heaven on Earth and it gave her many calming moments in her final days.”
“They loved it,” Michael Caprio, her friend and publicist, told The Post separately, which reported that the four-bedroom, five-bathroom Santa Ynez property was purchased for USD$4.69 million in 2015.
Situated on 12-plus acres alongside the Santa Ynez River with a 4,452 square feet main house, other amenities included a two-bedroom guesthouse, a barn, horse stables, and a pool.
Newly built in 2008, the contemporary estate features a main residence that is accented with wood, sky-lit ceilings in the great room, windows in the gourmet kitchen and an opulent sun room.
In June 2019, one month after listing her California home, she put her 189-acre Australian farm on the market. Newton-John initially purchased the land -- located in the town of Dalwood in New South Wales -- in the 1980s and rebuilt the home in the early 2000s. A month later, it sold for $4.6 million.
- With NY Post.
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