Olivia Newton-John successfully fought breast cancer for the first time in 1992 and went into remission. Last year, she revealed that her cancer had returned, this time in the base of her spine.
Now, in a new interview, she confesses that her current fight is actually her third cancer battle, as she learned in 2013 that the disease had returned, resurfacing in her shoulder, but decided at the time that she didn't want to publicly share news of the recurrence.
"I thought, 'It's my life,' and I just decided to keep it to myself," she explained to Australia's "Sunday Night" program, which aired on Sept. 9, according to Daily Mail Australia.
The "Grease" alum — who's about to turn 70 — explained that she at first thought a lump that emerged on her right shoulder was related to strain from the seat belt she was wearing when she got in a minor car accident early that year. But tests soon confirmed her breast cancer had returned two decades after her initial diagnosis.
Olivia also opened up about her current cancer battle, explaining that she's treating the tumor discovered in 2017 with a mix of modern medicine, such as radiation, as well as more natural therapies including a marijuana derivative, reports News Corp Australia Network.
"I'm still treating it, and I'm treating it naturally and doing really well," she said on "Sunday Night," explaining that she's cut sugar from her diet and takes cannabis oil — which is legal in California, where she lives on a ranch outside Santa Barbara with second husband John Easterling, the founder and president of the Amazon Herb Company, whom she married in 2008. She hopes medical marijuana treatments will soon be more widely available in her native Australia too.
"In California, it's legal to grow a certain amount of plants for your own medicinal purposes. So [my husband] makes me tinctures… they help with pain," she explained. "I'm very lucky that I live in a state where it's legal and that I have a husband that is a plant-medicine man."
"My dream is that, in Australia soon, it will be available to all the cancer patients and people going through cancer that causes pain," she added.
Olivia said she's confident she will once again beat the disease. "I believe I will win over it, and that's my goal," she said.
She expressed gratitude for her life. "You know, there are other people out there doing much, much worse than me. And, um, I'm a very privileged person, and I'm very aware of that," she said. "I live in this beautiful place. I have a wonderful husband. I have all the animals that I adore. I have an incredible career. I have nothing, really, to complain about."