Grease star Didi Conn recalls heartbreaking final conversation with Olivia Newton-John

Grease star Didi Conn has revealed Olivia Newton-John had “a broken a leg and didn’t even notice” when they last spoke before her death.

Olivia Newton-John and Didi Conn remained friends after filming Grease in 1978. Picture: David Becker/WireImage

Grease star Didi Conn says she spoke to Olivia Newton-John for the last time “just a few weeks” before her death.

The actor, who played Beauty School Dropout Frenchy in the hit musical, remained close to her co-star throughout the years and they regularly kept in contact.

“We spoke like once a month or so,” Conn, 71, recently toldNew York Postin an exclusive interview.

“She was in the hospital at the time [we last spoke]. She had broken a leg and didn’t even notice. Like, her bones were just cracking.”

Olivia Newton-John and Didi Conn remained friends after filming Grease in 1978. Picture: David Becker/WireImage

Despite being ill with cancer, the Aussie star berated her friend when she heard Conn had been sick, too.

“She said, ‘What? Why didn’t you tell me?’” Conn remembered. “And the next day, I got this beautiful orchid plant. And three days before she died one of the orchid flowers fell down and my heart stopped.”

She added: “I said, ‘I hope that’s not a sign.’”

As previously reported, Newton-John, who was an outspoken advocate for cancer research, lost her battle with breast cancer in August 2022 at the age of 73.

She was first diagnosed with cancer in 1992 and again in 2013 and 2017. The disease eventually progressed to Stage 4.

Olivia Newton-John played Sandy alongside Didi Conn’s ‘Beauty School Dropout’ character Frenchy. Picture: Grab Web

During the interview, Conn also talked about when Newton-John received her first cancer diagnosis.

“Chloe [her daughter] was very little,” she said.

“Her priorities about stardom and all of that just flipped to living, to being the best mum, being the best friend. And also being an advocate and a spokesperson for cancer and thriving, as she said, surviving but thriving. And that’s really what she dedicated her life to – besides performing.”

Conn remembers going to see Newton-John in concert and being pulled on stage.

“Oh my god, the place would go berserk,” she said with a laugh, adding that Newton-John always sang I Love You, I Honestly Love You for the encore.

John Travolta played Danny Zuko opposite Olivia Newton-John’s Sandy in Grease. Picture: CBS via Getty Images

“And I’d be standing there in the wings near the stage, looking out, watching her having just danced her heart out,” she said.

“Towards the end she wasn’t dancing because her cancer had gone to her sacrum and back, but [she was still] giving her 110 per cent to the audience.

“And then she would say, ‘I honestly love you’ and put her hands out to the audience in such a loving, honest way. She honestly loved them and they loved her.”

Conn also told the New York Post she had no idea while filming Grease that it would become such a beloved classic.

“If I knew I would have asked for points!” she joked, noting that Paramount also had no clue that the film would become so successful.

It has now spawned an upcoming prequel series, Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies, which takes place four years before the events of Grease and follows the Pink Ladies girl posse.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and has been republished with permission

Originally published as Grease star Didi Conn recalls heartbreaking final conversation with Olivia Newton-John