Behind the Scenes of John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s Rollercoaster Romance
Here we go again—another Hollywood saga that’s somehow more romantic than a rom-com with private jets. When Kelly Preston and John Travolta first crossed paths in 1987, she was braving a screen test for the spy comedy The Experts while married to Kevin Gage. He was simply sashaying in like Saturday Night Fever royalty, flanked by his two dogs. According to Preston’s 2018 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, she nearly had a meltdown: “Oh s-t. Kill me now,” she admitted. Travolta later told Us Weekly that he spotted her descending the staircase, quipped a question about marriage, and was enthralled when she responded she “loved” being Mrs. Gage.
Preston’s early-’80s marriage fizzled, and she briefly courted George Clooney before a notorious engagement to Charlie Sheen ended in a real-life mishap she chalked up to accident. Yet fate apparently had better plans. A mutual friend tipped Travolta off that the screen test would ignite something special, and indeed they paired up for The Experts. By New Year’s Eve 1990 in Gstaad, Switzerland, Travolta was on one knee with a six-carat diamond, and on September 5, 1991, the couple tied the knot at Paris’s Hotel de Crillon before a swift American ceremony.
Within months, their son Jett arrived on April 13, 1992—a baby Travolta cheekily claimed in Premiere magazine was conceived during a houseguest stay at Bruce Willis and Demi Moore’s place. As the ’90s rolled on, Travolta’s career revived dramatically with Pulp Fiction in 1994, while Preston landed roles in Jerry Maguire, Addicted to Love, Jack Frost, For Love of the Game and What a Girl Wants. After welcoming daughter Ella Bleu in 2000 and son Benjamin a decade later, she opted for fewer screen outings to focus on family, though the duo did share credits in Battlefield Earth, Old Dogs, and Gotti.
Even after Preston’s heartbreaking passing in July 2020, Travolta hasn’t wavered in his devotion. He marks her birthdays and Mother’s Days on social media with heartfelt tributes, reminding fans that their bond stretched over three decades. In 2018 at the Gotti premiere, Preston mused to E! News that portraying a mob boss’s wife felt oddly familiar—years of shared loyalty, adoration, and inside jokes translating to their on-screen chemistry. She always stressed the secret to their longevity was keeping communication alive and never losing sight of fun.
Their saga defies the usual Hollywood heartbreak script—despite brushes with tabloid spectacles and box-office bombs, they built a steadfast partnership that lasted until the end. And in true cynic fashion, if you’re expecting an abrupt meltdown, spoiler alert: they made it work for almost 30 years. That’s today’s dose of romance reality—sip it slowly.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and Watch What Happens Live, Us Weekly, Premiere magazine, Entertainment Tonight, E! News
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
