John Travolta has spoken out about his experience with mourning after the tragic death of his wife, Kelly Preston.
Preston passed away from breast cancer at the age of 57 after a two-year battle with the disease.
Travolta revealed how he was going in a touching interview with Esquire Spain.
“I have learned that mourning someone, mourning, is personal. Mourning is individual and experiencing your own journey is what can lead to healing,” he told Esquire.
“This is different from someone else’s journey. The most important thing you can do to help another when they are in mourning is to allow them to live it and not complicate it with yours. That’s my experience.”
He also explained that he was so overwhelmed with managing everyone else’s grief, he had no space for his own when his wife passed.
“I felt so saturated with everyone’s sadness that I didn’t know what to do”.
“The first thing you should do when you experience grief is to go to a place where you can mourn, without any interference. If I die tomorrow, the last thing I want to see is that everyone around is sunk.”
“The most important thing you can do to help another when they are in mourning is to allow them to live it and not complicate it with yours,” he told the magazine.
“Otherwise, it will be two boats plummeting to the bottom. That is my experience. Because even though it’s great to have company, sometimes it becomes like you’re helping them, rather than putting yourself to work overcoming feelings of loss and grief.”
Travolta is now focusing on his two children, Ella, 21 and Ben 10, and helping them cope going forward.
“I will ensure the future of my children, help them with what they want to do with their lives,” he said. “It is what I do with Ella now with her films and teaching her to work in the profession. Ben is barely 10 years old. I want to help him evolve because he has his whole life ahead of him.”
This article originally appeared on Over60.