Australian singer Vanessa Amorosi appeared overcome with emotion and had to pull out of her live interview on Sunrise this morning, having just heard of Olivia Newton-John’s death.
Amorosi was booked to appear on the show to discuss her new single, after performing at the closing ceremony of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
But with Newton-John’s death aged 73 after a long battle with cancer making the biggest news of the morning, Sunrise hosts Natalie Barr and David Koch were set to first ask Amorosi about her memories of the star.
“It’s an incredibly sad day – Vanessa, what memories do you have?” Barr asked as they crossed over to the Aussie singer in Birmingham.
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“Uh … I don’t know. I don’t really want to think about it, because I’m going to get really excited,” Amorosi began. “I literally had one of the highest endorphin highs that ever happened (at the closing ceremony), because being extremely sad to leave the stage and check my phone. I don’t think I’ve really processed it yet.”
Koch said he would give Amorosi a chance to “compose” his thoughts on the late music legend and switched gears to discuss his performance at the Commonwealth Games and his new single.
A few minutes later, and with the interview about to end, the hosts turned the topic of conversation back to Olivia Newton-John.
“We know it’s a sad day for you and so many people, but we wanted to show this photo from a few years ago of you, Olivia Newton-John and Tina Arena,” Barr said, as a photo of the three Australian singers. at the 2000 Sydney Olympics appeared on screen.
“Can you tell us about those memories, that time, Vanessa?” Amorosi gave it his best shot, but was soon overcome with emotion.
“These two women that I’ve loved since (I was) a kid… I don’t know. I’m actually really sad for Olivia, to be honest. She’s…”
With that, he bowed his head and raised his hand, signaling the interview to stop.
Barr and Koch thanked him for his time, with Barr noting how difficult it must have been to break the news between a live performance and a live TV interview.
“So awful. I feel for her, after getting out of this.”
It’s been an emotional morning on breakfast TV as Newton-John’s friends, colleagues and fans have reacted to the news of his death in real time, after it happened at around 5am: 30am AEST.
At Nine, veteran entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins at first held it together as he reported the sad news to Today – but later in the morning, he was overcome with emotion, crying as host Karl Stefanovic rushed to comfort him.
And again Sunriseanother emotional live interview, this time on the streets of Los Angeles with Grease casting director Joel Thurm, who wept openly as he described his fond memories of Newton-John.
The British-born, Melbourne-raised entertainer had fought a decades-long battle with cancer, which returned in 2013.
In May 2017, she announced that her breast cancer had returned and had metastasized to her sacrum, and in 2018, it was revealed that she was once again battling the disease.
In October of last year, Newton-John revealed that she was battling stage 4 breast cancer but was managing the pain with medical marijuana.
Then today came the news that fans had been dreading for years: Newton-John had died at her Southern California ranch, surrounded by loved ones, including her husband, John Easterling, and daughter, Chloe Lattanzi.
Chloe paid tribute to her late mother on social media today, who she referred to as her ‘best friend’ a few days ago.