‘She was always my mentor’: Delta Goodrem opens up on her close friendship with Olivia Newton-John

Delta Goodrem “always looked up” to Dame Olivia Newton-John.

The 40-year-old singer endured a six-month cancer battle at the age of 18 and became friends with the late Grease legend –who died in 2022 more than 30 years after she was diagnosed with the disease– and recalled how they “became kindreds” in that time.

Speaking on UK TV show Loose Women, Goodrem said: “I always looked up to her, loved her as an Australian icon, and when I was diagnosed with cancer, she came into my life and we became kindreds of anything. In her philanthropic way, how could she help, how could I help? We both came together as a team and she was always my mentor.”

But that wasn’t the first time Delta met the Xanadu actress, and recalled a childhood memory where she bumped into her idol in New York.

She said: “When I first met her,  I was seven years old and I was at a cafe in New York and I was with my mum having a hot chocolate. I was going ‘There’s Sandy, there’s Sandy, there’s Sandy!’ She heard my Australian accent and came over and said hello. Little did she know we were going to see each other (several) times.”

Meanwhile, the Innocent Eyes hitmaker struck up a relationship with fellow musician Matthew Copley during a tour almost a decade and almost a year after he popped the question, Delta has explained that they started off as “best friends” when they met.

She said: ” We did get engaged, my partner and I. I feel very lucky, like the luckiest girl in the world. (We met) through music, he was my guitarist and we were doing arena shows in 2016 in Australia, and we honestly became best friends. That’s really where it came from. Now we collaborate on everything together.”