Olivia Newton-John has been gifted her ‘Grease’ jacket after it was auctioned off for charity.
The 71-year-old actress – who starred as Sandy in the iconic 1978 musical movie – sold her iconic biker jacket she wore whilst performing ‘You’re The One That I Want’ with John Travolta to help raise money for her cancer research centre last month.
But the buyer had other plans for the piece of movie memorabilia and wanted to return the jacket to a very "grateful" Olivia.
The anonymous buyer – a tech entrepreneur and doctor – said: "It should not sit in a billionaire’s closet for country club bragging rights. The odds of beating a recurring cancer using the newest emerging therapies is 1,000-fold greater than someone appearing out of the blue, buying your most famous and cherished icon, and returning it to you."
Thanking the generous buyer, Olivia said: "That is the most incredibly generous thing to do for me. I’m so grateful and I’m just blown away."
Olivia sold over 500 items at auction – including custom Pink Ladies jacket embroidered with Sandy which was gifted to the actress by the cast and crew when filming wrapped – to help raise money for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre.
She first overcame cancer in 1992 before it returned two more times in 2013 and again in 2018.
The cancer is now at stage four which spread to the base of her spine – causing a fracture which ultimately led to her needing to learn to walk again – and she is currently undergoing treatment at her cancer research centre in Melbourne .
The jacket sold at auction for £185,000, adding to a total of £1.8 million.
However, the ‘Let’s Get Physical’ hitmaker was stunned the souvenirs did so well as they had just been stored away gathering dust for a long time.
She said: "They were stored in cardboard boxes in storage rooms for many, many years.
"And some of them I hadn’t seen for a really long time. It was such a surprise."
Olivia Newton-John gifted auctioned Grease jacket
