Olivia Newton-John’s Grease co-star Didi Conn reveals last text message from star

Weeks before she died, Olivia Newton-John sent a heartbreaking text to friend and former Grease co-star Didi Conn, the actress shared today.

Olivia Newton-John’s Grease co-star and friend, Didi Conn, has shared the heartbreaking final text she received from Olivia before the legendary Australian performer died.

Speaking in interviews this morning, Conn, 71, who played Frenchy in 1978 hit Grease, revealed she had been in touch with Newton-John over the past few months, reading her final text from the star to The Mirror.

“I said, ‘I hope you know you’re in my heart, always’,” Conn told the publication.

“And she wrote back, ‘And you are in mine’. That was our last message on July 5th.”

The pair in a scene from the iconic film.

The actress went on to recall how Newton-John reacted on learning Conn was unwell this year. Despite clearly battling severe health issues of her own, the selfless actress had regularly called to check-in on her friend.

“I had been ill this year. Olivia didn’t know and one of our Grease friends told her about it,” Conn said.

“She was angry with me for not telling her. She said, ‘You’ve always been such a good friend to me, why didn’t you let me know?’. The next day I received the most gorgeous orchid plant. That was a few months ago.”

Conn went on to say the orchid started blooming just days before Newton-John died at her home in California at the age of 73.

“There have been no flowers on it, then on Friday a bud appeared. I thought, ‘that’s a sign that something’s going to happen’. I spent that whole night thinking about her. And a few days later I heard the news,” she said.

“Now two more buds have appeared so I’m calling them Olivia, Chloe and John.”

Didi and Olivia attended the 40th anniversary of Grease in California in 2018. Picture: Getty Images.

Also appearing on Good Morning America today, Conn said she had spoken to the Xanadu star “a couple of weeks ago” and Newton-John had revealed she was no longer able to walk during the conversation.

“She told me that her health was, you know, she wasn’t walking anymore and she had full-time care but her husband John and her daughter Chloe were there all the time, and she told me that they were just so hopelessly devoted,” she said, referencing the famed Grease number.

It comes after Newton John’s niece, Tottie Goldsmith, told A Current Affair about her final words with the Australian icon.

“It’s not a shock, we’ve known how sick she’s been, especially the last five days,” Goldsmith explained.

Olivia's niece Tottie was in tears as she recalled her aunt's final days.

“I couldn’t get to America in time and I wanted to say goodbye, so I asked him if he could hold the phone up to her ear, but he got me on FaceTime so I managed to see her.

“I told her all the things I needed to say.

“She was leaving us … but I could feel like she got it.”

Goldsmith said Newton-John “really went down in the past five or six days”.

“It wasn’t just the cancer that got her, it was other complications, being in a hospital and with a very susceptible immune system,” she said.

“She got secondary infections. She’s really struggled with a lot of pain.”

Goldsmith added that her aunt was “really skinny and really unwell”, but was brave until the end.

Originally published as Olivia Newton-John’s Grease co-star Didi Conn reveals last text message from star