Sixty dollars a day spent on cocaine and booze. A "disastrous" plastic
surgery habit. So what pulled the late Olivia Newton-John's daughter back from the brink?
Chloe Lattanzi [luh-TAN-zee] has no doubt faced her fair share of challenges in her life,
weathering the storm of some seriously tragic circumstances as she grew up in
the spotlight as the celebrity daughter of the late Olivia Newton-John and actor Matt Lattanzi.
The singer and former "Dancing With the Stars Australia" star has been vocal about experiencing
some tough times in her youth, admitting to Australia's Women's Weekly in 2019 during
a joint interview with her mom that she didn't always feel safe when she was growing up, saying,
"I do now, in this part of our relationship, but I think the teenage years are difficult
for everyone, and I think moms are afraid for their children."
Thankfully, Lattanzi appears to be on a better path in recent years,
and is ready to promote good in the world.
"I'm really happy. I'm stable and I'm in a loving relationship."
She told the Hollywood Reporter during another joint interview in 2021,
"I was overwhelmed for so long and I felt helpless. It changed when I was reminded how
much love I can pull out of myself and use for every single being I interacted with every day."
But what exactly has Lattanzi been through to give her such
an enlightened perspective on her purpose in the world?
Chloe Lattanzi has a sad history with alcohol and drug use,
and struggled to the point that she spent seven months in a sober living facility in 2013.
Lattanzi admitted that by the time she was just 22 years old, she was spending
$60 a day on her cocaine and vodka habit. She told Australia's Women's Day in 2013,
"I started to get into the party scene, drinking every night,
and then before long I got introduced to cocaine and all of a sudden the combination
of those two things took away all the fear and depression and that is when the cycle began."
Lattanzi added that she was doing drugs and drinking so heavily that she's amazed she
didn't experience a heart attack. But while Lattanzi escaped a serious heart episode,
she had other scares, telling the magazine,
"By this point I had a severe panic disorder where out of the blue my heart rate would jack
up and you would be shaky and dizzy and you would think you were going to die."
Her mom helped her to get sober, encouraging her to get into a
rehab facility and enlisting the help of "Celebrity Rehab" host Dr. Drew Pinsky.
Chloe Lattanzi has struggled with body dysmorphia for much of her life and has
undergone multiple cosmetic procedures as a result of her insecurities. She told Studio 10 in 2020,
"I think growing up in L.A., growing up in the limelight, and growing up around people
who have had plastic surgery, and who are all thin, it's kind of like, 'It happens.'
I mean, so many kids I know have struggled with body dysmorphia."
Lattanzi also opened up about her surgeries and struggles on "The Doctors" in 2016, sharing that
she had a lot of fillers removed from her face after finally embracing her natural appearance.
"I look back at myself as a teenager and I'm like, 'What a beautiful
young woman. What was I thinking? Why was I so insecure?'"
Lattanzi told Women's Day that her early surgeries were "a disaster," adding,
"Not only did the lip implants look ridiculous,
the first boob op I had in Australia when I was 18 left me looking mutilated."
In addition to her body dysmorphia issues,
Chloe Lattanzi's mental health struggles included a bout of depression that lasted around 15
years. Lattanzi has explained how growing up in the spotlight as a result of Olivia
Newton-John's A-List status highlighted her issues, telling the Daily Mail in 2013,
"Fame totally messes you up. I don't blame my mother for my problems, but I would never
want to be famous or raise a child of my own around the cult of celebrity. It ruins lives."
In 2018, Lattanzi claimed in a since-deleted Instagram post that she felt she had come
out of her depression for the first time in her adult life,
explaining that her struggles had inspired her 2016 album "No Pain."
Three years later, she spoke candidly to Studio 10,
explaining that much of her depression and mental health issues stemmed from
a lack of self-esteem and never feeling good enough while growing up with famous parents.
"I was just a child going through a psychological illness and I kind of self-sabotaged."
Chloe Lattanzi has been candid about how her parents' divorce really affected her,
as Olivia Newton-John and Matt Lattanzi split in 1995 when she was just 9 years old.
Lattanzi opened up about that difficult time in her life
in a joint interview with her mom in Women's Weekly in 2019, admitting,
"I don't think I understood how much my parents' divorce affected me.
Now I've realized that family is so healing."
She also shared how she has an affinity for Christmas because of the stability it brings
to her life after experiencing a rocky childhood when her parents split, saying,
"Being around your family and having a meal
and being able to all go to bed in the same house — that is safety."
Lattanzi added that she had a dream of herself and her parents one day living on the same property.
Thankfully, Lattanzi remained close with her mom and dad following their divorce. Newton-John often
shared pics and gushed on Instagram, showing just how close she was with her daughter,
while Chloe often returned the favor during quality time with both her mom and dad. Chloe
also shares a strong relationship with her stepdad, John Easterling.
No doubt one of the biggest heartaches in Chloe Lattanzi's life came from her mom's
many years living with breast cancer. Olivia Newton-John was first diagnosed in 1992,
then again in 2013, and for a third time in 2017.
Two years after her third diagnosis, Newton-John and Lattanzi sat down for an emotional
"60 Minutes Australia" interview in which Lattanzi confessed the diagnosis wasn't
something they often spoke about — unless her mom was having a day where it needed to be discussed.
She also got candid about how she first found out about the "Grease" star's cancer when she
was just a child, sharing the heartbreak she felt after learning about it from a school classmate.
"Getting into it, explaining it to me, maybe would have given me more of a sense of control."
In the years that followed, Lattanzi was always there for her mother,
often sharing supportive public posts. In a sweet Instagram upload on June 3,
2022, mere weeks before Newton-John's death, the mother/daughter duo pulled
kissy faces alongside two throwback snaps, as Lattanzi captioned the post,
"Always and forever mama. I got you. I see you. I will walk with you to the ends of the earth,
no questions asked."
Chloe Lattanzi was left heartbroken when her mom passed at age 73
on August 8, 2022. Lattanzi posted a touching tribute to her late mother on Instagram,
sharing several photos of them together over the years.
The singer shared the images mere hours after Newton-John's death was made public,
opting to leave the caption blank. The tribute post heartbreakingly came mere days
after Lattanzi shared another more recent shot of herself and her mom to Instagram
on August 5, 2022, writing, "I worship this woman. My mother. My best friend."
Adding even more to the undeniable heartbreak,
Lattanzi revealed on Instagram just two weeks before Newton-John's death
that she and her husband, James Driskill, were moving in with her mom.
Sadly, Chloe Lattanzi didn't get to spend all the time she wanted with her mom before her untimely
death, but thankfully she got to be around her a lot in the years prior to her passing.
Olivia Newton-John told People in 2021 she was grateful for all the
time at home during the coronavirus pandemic
because it allowed her and Lattanzi to be together and bond all over again. She told the magazine,
"I worked my whole life, and the longest period I can remember being home was my pregnancy with
Chloe and the first year or two of her life. So it's been wonderful reconnecting with my baby."
"This has been a dream time,
being able to spend a long time with Chloe, that we've never had before."
Lattanzi dished on spending more time with her mom to Women's Weekly in 2019, confessing,
"I love seeing my mom. It's good medicine. When I don't see my mum for a long time, it's like
I feel ill. When I'm with her, it feels like all is right with the world. She makes me feel safe."
But despite not always spending big chunks of time together, Newton always gushed about her
daughter and revealed in May 2014 that she would split time between Santa Barbara, where she lived
with her husband, and Malibu, where Lattanzi lived before moving. She told the Malibu Times,
"People always ask me what my biggest achievement is,
and the first thing that comes to mind is my daughter. If she's happy, I'm happy."
What really happened to Patrick McDermott?
That's the question the world has been asking ever since 2005 when McDermott,
Olivia Newton-John's ex-boyfriend, went missing at sea during a fishing trip.
"He was lost at sea, and nobody really knows what happened."
"Do you wonder?" "Of course. I mean, it's human to wonder."
What actually happened to McDermott has been subject to a lot of speculation,
and rumors began to surface in the bizarre case that McDermott may actually be alive and well.
Private investigators claimed in 2009 that McDermott had apparently been found living
on a boat in Mexico with a new partner, after supposedly faking his disappearance
to avoid debts, according to the Telegraph. But there's no hard evidence of this, and a Coast
Guard investigation at the time determined that he had most likely been lost at sea.
In 2016, speculation was rife once again that McDermott was alive after an apparent sighting.
Chloe Lattanzi, who was 11-years-old when McDermott went missing, spoke candidly about
all the rumors to Australia's New Idea, opening up about the heartbreak she and her mom felt not only
about his disappearance but about the constant speculation about what really happened. She said,
"I can't believe he could really be alive and well after so long.
It's really devastating. It's been difficult for us. It's hard. We lost someone."
That came just over a decade after Newton-John shared on "Good Morning
America" that she was hopeful for McDermott's return, saying,
"It's very much a mystery and speculation has been
rife and I choose not to buy into the speculation."
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues,
help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website
or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).