Ahead of Olivia Newton-John’s State Memorial Service this night, Richard Wilkins has remembered his shut good friend’s “wonderful life”.
Wilkins, who’s Nine’s Entertainment Editor and will likely be paying tribute on the service to the “most popular Aussie in the world”, who died in August 2022 on the age of 73, mentioned he “spent hours sitting out the blank space” determining what he was going to say as he “wants to get it right”.
“She was the real deal, just genuine and lovely. I never heard her say a bad word about anybody, and I spent quite a bit of time with her, and I never heard anybody say anything bad about her,” Wilkins advised 2GB’s Ben Fordham on his Ben Fordham Live weekend podcast
Watch the video above.
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And as he mirrored on the bittersweet reminiscences and her monumental influence on the world, Wilkins determined to share one story that is filled with “laughs”.
Wilkins had been in Los Angeles and had been talking to Newton-John on the cellphone, when in the future, she known as him and requested him if he had any plans that evening.
Chris Martin of Coldplay had requested Newton-John if she needed to come back see the band’s concert, and Newton-John invited Wilkins in addition to her daughter Chloe Lattanzi to come back alongside with her.
“Half-way down [to the venue], of course, Olivia said, ‘Oh, Chris couriered me the tickets,’ and I said, ‘Well, that’s good of him,’ but then she said, ‘But I’ve forgot them,’ and I said, ‘Oh Olivia, have you got his number?'” Wilkins mentioned.
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Olivia Newton-John: Her extraordinary life remembered
She, the truth is, didn’t have his quantity, nor the tickets, or “anything” as Wilkins mentioned. So, when the trio arrived on the venue, Wilkins went to the ticket sales space to see if he may type it out with the clerk.
“I realised that I’d found the only person in the world that’d never heard of Olivia Newton-John,” Wilkins mentioned, to which Fordham laughed as he guessed the place the story was going.
”I said, ‘Excuse me sir, Olivia Newton-John’s just out there, she’s been invited by Chris Martin to come see [Coldplay], and he said, ‘Who?’ and I said, ‘Olivia Newton-John,'” Wilkins recalled.
The clerk mentioned, “I don’t know who that is” so Wilkins requested the place the stage door was.
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After driving round for “a bit”, they discovered the stage door, and thankfully, the safety guard knew precisely who Newton-John was.
“And before we know it, Chris Martin was bounding out with his then-wife Gwyneth Paltrow in tow, and we were standing around in the backstage area, Gwyneth brought us out some glasses of wine,” Wilkins mentioned.
Then, after speaking for a bit, Martin mentioned, “Look, I’ve got to go”, to which Lattanzi mentioned, “Why? Why do you have to go?”
Martin mentioned, “Do you hear that music? That’s the intro tape” earlier than sprinting off.
“It was quite the experience, if you ever go to a Coldplay concert, you should take Olivia Newton-John,” Wilkins laughed.
Watch Olivia Newton-John’s State Memorial Service from 3.30pm on Sunday, February 26, 2023 on Channel 9, or stream it on 9Now.
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