Actor Kelly Preston died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, her family announced. She was 57.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer,” Preston’s husband, actor John Travolta, wrote on Instagram. “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.”
Born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith in Honolulu, she changed her name to Kelly Preston before landing her first film role in the 1985 romantic comedy Mischief, Reuters reported. Over the next three decades, Preston appeared in dozens of films and television shows, notably Jerry Maguire, Twins and For Love of the Game. She met Travolta in 1987 and they married in Paris four years later.
The couple had three children together. Their son, Jett, died in 2009 at the age of 16.
Preston and Travolta starred on screen in Battlefield Earth (2000). Most recently, the couple played husband and wife John and Victoria Gotti in “Gotti,” the 2018 film about the mob boss.
Travolta said his family would seek privacy in the coming months, but that he would “feel your outpouring of love” during that time.
“I will be taking some time to be there for my children who have lost their mother, so forgive me in advance if you don’t hear from us for a while,” he said. “But please know that I will feel your outpouring of love in the weeks and months ahead as we heal.”
Preston is survived by her husband and two children, Ella, 20, and Benjamin, 9.
Ella wrote on Instagram: “I have never met anyone as courageous, strong, beautiful and loving as you.”
A family representative told People magazine that she died on Sunday morning and that she had kept her cancer diagnosis private.
“She had been undergoing medical treatment for some time, supported by her closest family and friends,” the family representative said.
“She was a bright, beautiful and loving soul who cared deeply about others and who brought life to everything she touched. Her family asks for your understanding of their need for privacy at this time.”
Russell Crowe was among the Hollywood stars paying tribute, remembering Preston as “a lovely person” and a “sparkly eyed gem”.
Spencer Breslin, who played Preston’s character’s son in The Cat in the Hat, remembered his “screen mom” as being “a lovely woman”, adding: “Such a sad loss.”
Lost star Daniel Dae Kim, meanwhile, said he had been “lucky enough to work with her on one of my very first films”, 1999’s For Love of The Game.
“We were shooting on cold days in Colorado, but she couldn’t have been warmer or kinder to a young, nervous actor trying to make good,” he continued.
One of Preston’s last screen roles was in the 2018 crime biopic Gotti, in which she appeared opposite her husband.
While promoting the film at the Cannes Film Festival, the actress spoke to reporters about their long relationship.
“We took the time to get to know each other,” she said. “Marriage doesn’t just happen on its own, you have to keep creating love.
“We also keep it light. Neither of us like to fight so we purposely do not push each other’s buttons.”
