Olivia Newton-John Sold Off Her Assets Before Her Death to 'Raise More Money for Charity'

Olivia Newton may have left this world but not without a final deed of kindness. 

In 2019, Olivia Newton learned that she had stage 4 cancer. The singer and actress then sold most of her massive real estate portfolio in order to invest more into her foundation and wellness center, reported DailyMail.

The Grease star passed away this week at the age of 73 following a decades-long cancer battle.

She listed her Californian ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley for $7.7 million (USD $5.4m or £4.4m). But in October 2021, Newton-John transferred full ownership of her Santa Barbara estate to her husband, John Easterling, where she spent her last days.

The beautiful four-bedroom, five-bathroom 4,452 square foot Santa Ynez house, built in 2008, spans 12 acres near the Santa Ynez River and includes a guest house, a pool, and a barn and stables for horses.
Records show Newton-John transferred full ownership of the estate to her husband, who then re-financed the mortgage with $2.5 million still left on the home. Just one month after listing the California home, Newton-John listed her leafy Australian villa, located in the town of Dalwood in the Australian countryside; it sold a month later for a whopping $4.6 million.

Olivia was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, then again in 2013, and her last diagnosis came in 2017.

“Olivia loved helping people. She spent the last two decades of her life giving back,” a source close to Newton-John told New York Post. “She wanted to leave behind something that would last, and something that her daughter, too, could benefit from.”

“She was in a lot of pain, but she was a fighter,” the source explained. “The place was her heaven on Earth and it gave her many calming moments in her final days.”
“They loved it,” Michael Caprio, her friend and publicist, told The Post separately.

In 2012, with the help of state and federal funding, along with philanthropic support, Newton-John established Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre at Melbourne's Austin Hospital, which she continued to invest in over the years. She also co-founded the Gaia Retreat & Spa in 2005 and more recently launched the Olivia Newton-John Foundation.

The late actor founded the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute in 2015. The institute currently has 140 research studies underway, with scientists involved with 200 ongoing trials. While speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Newton-John said of the organization: "I'm so excited. This has been something that's been in my heart and my mind for many years. "Being a cancer thriver of 28 years and having gone through surgery and chemotherapy and radiation I always had this dream that we could find kinder ways of treating cancer."

In a 2020 interview with Forbes she said, "The idea is to fund research into kinder ways to treat cancer, to prevent cancer, and to live well with cancer. So, all those things, I believe, we will eventually see a world beyond it where it's just treated as any other illness that you can kind of control and live well with and, of course, hopefully, cure it.

"Living well is something that I do, and I'm hoping that I can help others do that."