Diana Hyland passed away in March of 1977, and it wasn't long before John Travolta would be facing another devastating loss. His beloved mother, Helen, was very obviously ill by 1978, but according to Wensley Clarkson's biography, "John Travolta: Back in Character," the rest of the family had decided not to tell him that she had been diagnosed with cancer. He only learned later that even as he had been dealing with Hyland's diagnosis, illness, and ultimate passing, his mother was already aware of her own diagnosis.
She passed away in December of 1978, and Travolta was understandably devastated: He wavered in interviews and on publicity tours, and he even backed out of his next film, which was slated to be "American Gigolo." He'd later say, "I had a real dichotomy in which I had great success and at the same time, great sorrow and tragedy. A lot of people got frustrated when my grief and tragedy got publicized. They were saying, 'Because you're famous, suddenly your loss is more important than our loss.'"
He had another shock to deal with on the heels of his mother's passing: Six months later, his father married the woman who had been her nurse in the final months of her life. Although Travolta and his siblings gradually came to accept the relationship, his initial public response was to simply state, "June is a very nice lady."
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