Olivia Newton-John ‘Feeling Great’ 3 Years After Cancer Diagnosis — and Looking Forward to Daughter’s Wedding

Olivia Newton-John has a lot to look forward to in 2021.

Not only is he loved Fat star, 72, plans to release a new album of duets, but will also be able to watch her daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, walk down the aisle with her fiance of 10 years, James Driskill, in a “small wedding” later this year.

“I’m so happy to still be doing all those things,” Newton-John tells PEOPLE. “I don’t think I ever imagined I would live this long! I feel very blessed.”

After all, the past few years have been tough for Newton-John, who was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer in 2017. But she says she’s “feeling great” — so much so that she and her husband, John Easterling, launched their Olivia Newton-John Foundation Foundation recently to continue supporting research into an herbal cure for cancer.

“I am very fortunate to be married to a wonderful man who is a herbalist and very knowledgeable,” she says. “Now he’s growing medicinal cannabis for me, and it’s just been wonderful. It’s helping me in all areas.”

Olivia Newton-John and daughter Chloe released a new duet together called ‘The Window in the Wall’

What also helped Newton-John through her cancer journey was having her daughter (from her marriage to ex-husband Matt Lattanzi) by her side. Although they have always been close, the mother-daughter duo became even closer because they were quarantined together in California during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’ve worked all my life, and the longest period I remember being at home was when I was pregnant with Chloe and the first year or two of her life,” says Newton-John. “It was wonderful to reconnect with my baby. She is my reason for being.”

Sam Tabone/WireImage

On Jan. 22, Newton-John and Lattanzi, 35, announced their new duet, “Window in the Wall,” which will be included on the star’s upcoming duet album. The song first came to Newton-John via email from a woman she met years ago.

“She sent me an email out of the blue saying, ‘I found this song and I think you have to sing it,'” she explains, adding that she immediately felt a twinge of dread. “I thought, ‘Oh, God, I know it’s not going to be good. How do I tell her?'”

Olivia Newton-John shares health update on breast cancer diagnosis: ‘I’m beating it well’

But when she first listened to the song, she was on board.

“It moved me to tears,” she says. “It’s a very healing song. I thought, ‘This is very special and I want to sing it with Chloe’.”

When Newton-John asked Lattanzi to join her on the track, she replied, “Yes — no question.”

“I was flattered and honored,” says Lattanzi. “She could have asked anyone, and she asked me. That meant everything in the world to me. It’s my dream job — I get to spend time with my favorite person.”

Ever since Lattanzi was a little girl, Newton-John says she knew she would follow in her musical footsteps.

“She sang and performed and knew the words to everything on the radio and every record,” she says. “And then she went through a shy period and didn’t want to do it that much. When she was about 13, we did a TV movie together and she sang ‘At Last,’ which is a classic Etta James song. It was so touching, and I said , ‘Oh man, she’s got it’.”

Lattanzi has since released her studio album in 2016. No painwhich included a cover of her mom’s 1980 hit “Magic” from the movie Xanadu.

“As a kid, I didn’t pay attention to her as a celebrity,” Lattanzi says. “She’s my mom, you know? Like, she takes me to school. I think as I got older, that’s when I started listening to her music. I reimagined ‘Magic’ because I really liked it a lot.”

Olivia Newton-John and daughter Chloe Lattanzi.

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Besides music, Lattanzi also managed to borrow some of her mother’s style.

“When I was in my early teens, she had a closet full of costumes from her movies,” she says. “I think she came home one time and I was trying on boots Xanadu, like big thigh-high cowboy boots. I wore them for Halloween, I believe.”

Newton-John adds: “I know what you had! You wore Xanadu tank top, and you didn’t realize it was special. She put it in the washing machine.”

As she prepares to walk down the aisle, Lattanzi keeps in mind the wise advice her mom once gave her: “Don’t change for anyone because that’s not love.”

“She picked a good one,” says Newton-John. “So I didn’t have to say much!”

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Source: HIS Education