She was the young blonde babysitter accused for the break-up of Olivia Newton-John’s first marriage after flirting with the actress’s husband while raising money for her first cancer struggle in 1994 – only to marry him in secret years later.
Cindy Jessup expressed in an exclusive interview today how she is grieving the ‘angelic’ star’s passing at the age of 73.
When Jessup met Olivia and her then-husband Matt Lattanzi, she was just 23 years old.
She was welcomed into the family’s house near Byron Bay, Australia, to watch after their seven-year-old daughter Chloe, a lovely little rider from New Zealand. Olivia and Matt divorced two years later, leaving Olivia, 48 and single, to battle breast cancer for the first time. Jessup, then 28, married Lattanzi secretly in California four years later.
Their marriage ended years later, and Jessup went on to marry a successful transplant specialist in California. They have two young children, enjoy music festivals such as Burning Man, and are avid outdoor enthusiasts.
Cindy Fisher, the once-vilified blonde, is now a trainee relationship therapist and masseuse under her new married name.
Speaking from her $2.7 million San Diego home, Jessup paid respect to Olivia, who eventually accepted her marriage to Lattanzi despite her own heartbreak for the sake of her daughter.
A real angel has been lost to the world. Olivia was genuinely concerned about people and the environment. She was such a power for good, constantly helping people, Cindy, who is now in her early fifties, recalled.
Her service is described online as assisting clients to attune to their own inner knowledge and establish significant relationship to themselves and others.
After Newton-John’s death, Jessup’s name was catapulted back into the spotlight.
Newton-John and Lattanzi originally met in the 1990s, while both were living near Byron Bay.
She met Matt in 1993 and they became friends through their shared passion of riding.
The family invited her to their farm to care for their seven-year-old daughter Chloe.
Cindy promised to bike from Sydney to Perth to raise money for Breast Cancer Research a year later, when Olivia was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time.
The couple happily posed for news photographers.
In several of the pictures, the trio, joined by Lattanzi, glanced joyfully at a map for the photographers’ lenses and swapped laughs.
In others, she posed alone or with Newton-John’s nephew, Emerson. Cindy was just 23 years old at the time.
Matt and Olivia split up the next year. He was 36 and she was 40.
Lattanzi married Cindy, who was 28 at the time, in a modest wedding in Malibu, California, four years later, in 1999.
The National Enquirer said at the time that Olivia and her daughter, Chloe, were the only two who knew about the wedding ahead of time.
According to an unidentified acquaintance of the pair, their relationship only became passionate after Olivia and Matt’s marriage collapsed.
It appears horrible since Cindy would frequently babysit his children and was a buddy of his and Olivia’s but there was no romance back then.
Matt, overjoyed not just with his new bride but also with Olivia’s embrace, added, he feel so blessed. He couldn’t have asked for a greater result.
Olivia remarried in 2008, when she married John Easterling. They stayed together till she died.
She had been apprehensive to marry the first time around.
Olivia had put off marriage until she was thirty-six as she was determined to do it correctly after being damaged by her own parents’ divorce since she was ten.
She married Matt with high hopes for a long-lasting relationship, but after a golden few years in which they seemed to live in a perfect world, their marriage had been wracked by situations and events that were frequently beyond their control. They had both altered inexorably. Olivia was alone again at the age of forty-eight.
Matt and Cindy finally settled in Malibu so that he could continue to be a loving dad to Chloe.
In June 1999, Cindy married Matt for the second time, Olivia’s 2011 biography states.
It’s unknown what caused Jessup and Lattanzi’s marriage to fall apart in 2007.
Lattanzi married his third wife, Michelle. They currently reside together in Oregon, where they run a marijuana farm.
On behalf of the pair, Michelle paid homage to Olivia on social media this week, writing: ‘Today we lost one of the world’s greats Olivia Newton-John.’
Matt and she are completely overwhelmed by the love and thanks sent to us by friends, family, and a truly caring community of admirers who will all miss Olivia’s existence in this world.
‘She has heard absolutely great stories and recollections from individuals near and far, and honor where those sentiments and memories originate.’
‘Nothing will ever be able to replace the icon they lost, but her legacy lives on in their hearts and memories, as do her contributions to our global culture, her loving daughter Chloe Lattanzi, and her cancer research and wellness center in Melbourne.’
‘Please accept the condolences on their loss, and then rejoice in the joy Olivia’s heart and lifetime achievements have bestowed upon the planet.’
