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John Travolta: ‘Gay rumours are every celebrity’s Achilles heel’

By Sam Rigby

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John Travolta has claimed that gay rumours are “every celebrity’s Achilles heel”.

The Hairspray actor is currently involved in a lawsuit with a man who claims he had a romantic relationship with him, while working as his pilot.

Asked about the lawsuit in an interview with The Daily Beast, Travolta replied: “This is every celebrity’s Achilles heel. It’s just about people wanting money. That’s all. It happens on many levels.

“Also, I don’t care that much about it. Other people may attack it back more than I do, but I let all the media stuff go a long time ago because I can’t control it. I think that’s why it persists, to some degree.”

Douglas Gotterba, 64, claims that he had a six-year affair with Travolta in the early 1980s.

Travolta said that he found the media’s coverage of his son’s death in 2009 “most offensive”, adding that it was “the lowest I’ve ever felt”.

He continued: “Sex stuff is always going to be interesting to somebody, but you stay away from family. You really should. With that, I always felt like the media – not all of the media, but parts of it – went too low there.”

Travolta’s son, Jett, died at the age of 16, from a seizure during a family holiday in the Bahamas. Travolta has since confirmed that his son had autism and experienced a number of seizures.

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