Olivia Newton-John battles breast cancer again, postpones North American tour

Olivia Newton-John is battling breast cancer again and has postponed a tour through the United States and Canada.

At the beginning of May, the UK-born Australian singer and actor postponed just her dates in the Midwest, initially thinking her health issues were due to severe back pain (sciatica).

But it turned out that the breast cancer had spread to her lower back.

She expects to reschedule the shows “in a couple of weeks” and “be back later in the year, better than ever”.

The Grease star and singer behind hits as Physical and Xanadu reveals that she will embark on a series of natural wellness therapies and a short course of photon radiation therapy.

In a statement she said, “I decided on my direction of therapies after consultation with my doctors and natural therapists and the medical team at my Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia.”

Her Centre, set up in 2014 at Austin Hospital, offers massage, meditation and yoga, which she took up when she was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992. She recalled she was diagnosed the same weekend that her Nobel Prize-winning physicist father Max Born died.

Her latest album LIV ON was inspired by the death of her sister Rona Newton-John on May 24, 2013 from brain cancer. Their mother also died from the disease.

Channel 7 is currently shooting a biopic of Newton-John’s life, with Delta Goodrem in the lead role.

Her life has certainly had its dark moments.

These included the collapse of her marriage to dancer Matt Lattanzi, and the mysterious disappearance in 2005 of boyfriend Patrick McDermott during a boating trip amidst allegations he faked his death to live in Mexico.

She also had to support daughter Chloe Lattanzi in her battle with body dysmorphia and addiction since her mid-teens.

Newton-John is currently married to businessman John Easterling.