Date: 22nd April 2003

Wife's joke made Travolta shape up


John Travolta has told how a joke by his wife made him realise he was badly overweight.

Travolta, who turns 50 next year, says his wife Kelly Preston, 40, jokingly pulled a face, stuck two fingers in her mouth and made retching noises one night as he stood naked in front of a full-length mirror at their home.

He told the News of the World's Sunday magazine her jesting made him think: "She was trying to tell me something I should have seen. I'd let myself go, become a bit of a wreck.

"
My wife still loves me and I adore her, that won't change. But my self-esteem was showing cracks. I thought 'this looks like a middle-aged man in bad shape."'

The actor then began a year-long regime of weights and cardiovascular exercises and shed an impressive 24lbs without dieting.

By the time he began filming for his thriller Basic, released in June, 6ft 2ins tall Travolta was down to 14 stone.

He said: "
At least I'm not looking in the mirror and seeing my wife nauseous at the sight of me without my clothes on."

Source: Press Release