John Travolta is remembering his late son, Jett.
The Pulp Fiction actor took to Instagram on Sunday, April 13, to commemorate what would have been Jett’s 33rd birthday.
Sharing a throwback photo of himself holding a young Jett, who can be seen playing with his dad’s ears, Travolta wrote, “Happy birthday Jett – I miss you so much! Love you forever!”
Jett died at the age of 16 in January 2009 during a family vacation in the Bahamas. The teenager died after suffering from a seizure.
Travolta, 71, shared Jett, daughter Ella Bleu and son Benjamin, 14, with his late wife, Kelly Preston. Preston died at the age of 57 in July 2020 after battling breast cancer.
“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,” Travolta shared in an Instagram post announcing the news at the time. “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many. My family and I will forever be grateful to her doctors and nurses at MD Anderson Cancer Center, all the medical centers that have helped, as well as her many friends and loved ones who have been by her side.”
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“Kelly’s love and life will always be remembered. 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. But please know that I will feel your outpouring of love in the weeks and months ahead as we heal,” the statement continued.
Travolta has previously been open about how he deals with grief after losing his eldest son and his wife.
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“I learned that mourning someone, dealing with grief is something very personal,” Travolta told Esquire Spain in April 2021. “Mourning is individual and experiencing your own journey is what can lead you to heal. Your grief is different from another person’s journey.”
“The most important thing you can do to help another person when they are in mourning is allow them to live through it and not complicate it with yours,” he explained. “Let’s say you lose someone and at the funeral you are very sad, then another person approaches you who is feeling more sadder and then doesn’t leave enough space for you to mourn. It would be like two boats plummeting to the bottom. That is my experience.”
