On Instagram Monday morning, John Travolta shared a picture of wife Kelly Preston, writing: “It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer.” A representative for the family informed people that she “[chose] to keep her fight private” and had been “undergoing medical treatment for some time.”
Preston’s acting career began in 1983, and she starred in films like Christine and SpaceCamp before really breaking out in 1988’s Twins, starring opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. She went on to appear in films like The Experts—also 1988, where she met husband John Travolta— Jerry Maguire, and cult Tarantino hit From Dusk Till Dawn. More recently, she starred in her husband’s 2018 film Gotti, in which she played Victoria Gotti.
She was also a devout member, along with Travolta, of the Church of Scientology. Her husband claimed in 2019 that his religion of nearly 40 years “saved” them both after son Jett Travolta died of a seizure in January 2009. “The church never left our sides for two years.” In an interview on Amanda de Cadenet’s Lifetime talk show, The Conversation, she called Scientology a “path of spiritual enlightenment,” one that “helps rid the mind of painful experiences altogether.
Preston is survived by husband John Travolta, daughter Ella Bleu Travolta, and son Benjamin Travolta.