Kelly Preston, who played dramatic and comic foil to actors ranging from Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire” to Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Twins,” died Sunday, husband John Travolta said. She was 57.
Travolta said in an Instagram post that his wife of 28 years died after a two-year battle with breast cancer.
“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,” Travolta said. “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.”
FILE - In this June 14, 2018, file photo, Kelly Preston attends the premiere of "Gotti" at the SVA Theatre in New York. Preston, whose credits included the films “Twins” and “Jerry Maguire,” died Sunday, July 12, 2020, her husband John Travolta said. She was 57.(Photo by Charles SykesInvisionAP, File)
They had three children together.
Preston had a lengthy acting career in movies and television, at times appearing together in films with her husband, as they did in the box-office bomb “Battlefield Earth” in 2000.
Preston starred opposite Kevin Costner in the 1999 film “For the Love of the Game,” and in 2004 appeared in the music video for Maroon 5's “She Will Be Loved."
FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2011, file photo, Actress Kelly Preston, left and her husband John Travolta arrive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 2011 Governors Awards, in Los Angeles. Actress Kelly Preston, whose credits included the films “Twins” and “Jerry Maguire,” died Sunday, July 12, 2020, her husband John Travolta said. She was 57.(AP PhotoChris Pizzello, File)
She had frequent guest-starring roles on TV series like “Medium," “CSI: Cyber” and “Joey.”
“Shocked by this sad news,” Maria Shriver said on Twitter. “Kelly was such a bright loving soul, a talented actress, and a loving mom and wife. My heart breaks for her family who have already known such sadness and grief.”
Preston and Travolta were married at a midnight ceremony in Paris in 1991 while the couple were expecting their first son, Jett.
FILE -- A March 25, 2010, file photo shows Kelly Preston, right, a cast member in "The Last Song," with her husband John Travolta at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles. Actress Kelly Preston, whose credits included the films “Twins” and “Jerry Maguire,” died Sunday, July 12, 2020, her husband John Travolta said. She was 57.(AP PhotoChris Pizzello, File)
In January 2009, Jett Travolta, 16, died after a seizure at the family's vacation home in the Bahamas. The death touched off a court case after an ambulance driver and his attorney were accused of trying to extort $25 million from the actors in exchange for not releasing sensitive information about their son's death.
Travolta testified during a criminal trial that ended in a mistrial and was prepared to testify a second time, but decided to stop pursuing the case. He cited the severe strain the case and his son's death had caused the family.
Both Preston and Travolta returned to acting, with Preston's first role back in the Nicholas Sparks adaptation, “The Last Song,” which starred Miley Cyrus and her future husband, Liam Hemsworth.
They had two other children, daughter Ella Bleu in 2000 and son Benjamin in 2010.
Travolta and Preston met while filming 1988′s “The Experts.”
They last starred together in the 2018 film “Gotti,” with Travolta playing John Gotti and Preston playing the crime boss’s wife, Victoria.
“Kelly’s love and life will always be remembered,” Travolta wrote on Instagram. “I will be taking some time to be there for my children who have lost their mother, so forgive me in advance if you don’t hear from us for a while. But please know that I will feel your outpouring of love in the weeks and months ahead as we heal.”
Preston’s death was first reported by People magazine.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Organizers of Australia’s largest free literary festival canceled the event Tuesday after more than 180 writers and speakers withdrew over the scrapping of an appearance by an Australian-Palestinian writer and academic.
The uproar began when the board of the Adelaide Festival, which runs Adelaide Writers Week, announced on Jan. 8 that they had disinvited Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the event “given her previous statements” and citing cultural sensitivities “at this unprecedented time so soon after” an antisemitic mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
There was no suggestion that Abdel-Fattah or her writings “have any connection with the tragedy,” the board members added.
They didn’t cite any specific statements by the lawyer, academic and writer of fiction and nonfiction that prompted their decision. Abdel-Fattah decried the move as “censorship” and said the announcement suggested that her “mere presence” was culturally insensitive.
By Tuesday, when the event was canceled, most of the programmed speakers had withdrawn. The episode unfolded amid a fraught national debate in Australia about limits on speech following the Bondi shooting.
A father and son who were apparently inspired by Islamic State group ideology are accused of the massacre during a Hanukkah event in December, in which 15 people were shot dead. The surviving suspect, Naveed Akram, has not entered a plea to the dozens of murder, terrorism and other charges he faces.
In the aftermath, the Jewish Community Council for South Australia — the state where Adelaide is located — wrote to the festival to lobby for Abdel-Fattah’s exclusion, the group's spokesperson Norman Schueler told The Adelaide Advertiser. The Premier of South Australia state Peter Malinauskus also supported the writer’s removal.
The Adelaide Writers Week was scheduled to run for six days beginning in late February, as part of a wider annual culture festival. The 2025 literary event was the festival’s 40th and attracted 160,000 attendees.
Born in Australia to Palestinian and Egyptian parents, Abdel-Fattah often writes about Islamophobia and had been invited to speak about her novel Discipline, which follows two Muslims, a journalist and a university student, navigating issues of censorship in Sydney. She has been a critic of the Israeli government and an advocate for Palestinians throughout the two-year war in Gaza.
After the board’s statement canceling Abdel-Fattah’s appearance, other speakers on the program — including British novelist Zadie Smith and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern — withdrew from their events too. The Festival’s director quit Tuesday, citing her objections to the board’s decision to disinvite Abdel-Fattah.
Louise Adler, a Jewish Australian, wrote in the Guardian that she could not “be party to silencing writers.” She said 70% of the event's speakers had withdrawn.
Hours later, a statement on the Festival’s Facebook page said that the event would not proceed and that all remaining board members would resign. The statement, which was not attributed to a named individual, offered an apology to Abdel-Fattah for “how the decision was represented.”
Board members wanted to “reiterate this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history,” the statement said.
Abdel-Fattah rejected the apology in a post on X Tuesday, lambasting the decision to cancel her appearance as “a blatant act of anti-Palestinian racism.” She said the board had apologized for how her removal was presented but not for the decision itself.
The removal of Abdel-Fattah prompted some sponsors of the event to withdraw, too. The fate of the wider Adelaide Festival was unclear Tuesday, although a new board was due to be appointed Wednesday.
The event is a major draw for the state and generated millions of dollars in revenue and hundreds of jobs in 2025, a report by the festival organization said.
Abdel-Fattah’s exclusion came amid proposed or enacted law changes covering hate speech, protest and guns after the Bondi massacre. New South Wales state, where the shooting happened, swiftly passed a law in December banning protest gatherings during periods following terrorism declarations.
The state is also mulling changes that would criminalize certain chants, including some used at pro-Palestinian rallies.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday that he would recall the federal parliament in January to vote on his proposed measures to tighten Australia's gun controls and lower criminal thresholds for prosecuting hate speech. He has also announced a major national inquiry, called a royal commission, into antisemitism in Australia and the Bondi attack specifically.
Albanese said a national day of mourning for those killed would be held on Jan. 22.
FILE - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gestures as she gives her victory speech to Labour Party members at an event in Auckland, New Zealand, Oct. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)
