Travolta Admits Late Son Had Autism
John Travolta has admitted for the first time his son Jett had autism. Travolta made the admission about his son in the Bahamas as he testified against two men accused of trying to blackmail him with private information about his son's rescue effort.
Jett died in January from a seizure.
CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella said Travolta testified in a Nassau courtroom that Jett suffered a seizure every five to ten days -- each lasting from 45 seconds to minutes.
Mike Fleeman, West coast editor of People magazine, said, "It was a jaw-dropping revelation."
Scientology watchers, Cobiella said, believe he may have kept the condition a secret because of the way Scientologists view illness.
Bruce Hines, a former Scientology minister, said, "They believe that the only reason a person can get ill is because they are in some way connected to a suppressive person and a suppressive person is someone who is opposed to Scientology."
In interviews following Jett's death, experts explained why many members keep their sickness hidden.
"It's really a big deal, so how the Travoltas dealt with this--a chronic illness in the family, I'm not sure how they would have been able to explain it," Hines said.
The revelation in court breaks a long silence by Travolta. But does it signal a move away from the church?
Fleeman doesn't think so.
"It came from a place of privacy," he said. "I think he was protecting Jett, protecting himself, protecting his family as much as I think he wanted to do the right thing, he just couldn't cross that barrier."
Travolta finished his first day in court without testifying about the details of the extortion attempt.
However, he did testify that he performed CPR on his son after a nanny alerted him 16-year-old Jett had fallen ill at a family vacation home on Grand Bahama island.
"I ran downstairs with my wife to help my son," Travolta said.
Photos: John Travolta
Travolta is the star witness at the trial of two people -- paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and former Bahamas senator Pleasant Bridgewater -- who are accused of trying to extort $25 million from the movie star. Both defendants pleaded innocent to extortion charges at the trial that began Monday in this island chain off the Florida coast.
It was a rare public appearance for Travolta, 55, who has kept a low profile since Jett's death. He skipped promotional events this summer for his latest film, "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3." He thanked his co-stars on his Web site for giving him time to grieve through their efforts to publicize the film.
Travolta arrived the Supreme Court building in an entourage of sport utility vehicles for his first appearance at the trial. Security was noticeably heavier than previous days with Bahamas police officers surrounding the courthouse.
In his testimony, he said he and Preston were awakened by a nanny around 10:15 a.m. on Jan. 2, the day of Jett's death. Travolta said when he went downstairs, another caretaker was doing chest compressions and he began administering breathing help.
Police say the alleged scheme involved a document related to Jett's treatment. It would have released emergency responders from liability if the family refused an ambulance but police said that did not happen.
A police officer testified Tuesday that Travolta signed the release because he initially wanted his son taken to the airport instead of a local hospital.
A nine-person jury was expected to hear from a total of 14 witnesses, including Travolta.
CBS/ AP Jett died in January from a seizure.
CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella said Travolta testified in a Nassau courtroom that Jett suffered a seizure every five to ten days -- each lasting from 45 seconds to minutes.
Mike Fleeman, West coast editor of People magazine, said, "It was a jaw-dropping revelation."
Scientology watchers, Cobiella said, believe he may have kept the condition a secret because of the way Scientologists view illness.
Bruce Hines, a former Scientology minister, said, "They believe that the only reason a person can get ill is because they are in some way connected to a suppressive person and a suppressive person is someone who is opposed to Scientology."
In interviews following Jett's death, experts explained why many members keep their sickness hidden.
"It's really a big deal, so how the Travoltas dealt with this--a chronic illness in the family, I'm not sure how they would have been able to explain it," Hines said.
The revelation in court breaks a long silence by Travolta. But does it signal a move away from the church?
Fleeman doesn't think so.
"It came from a place of privacy," he said. "I think he was protecting Jett, protecting himself, protecting his family as much as I think he wanted to do the right thing, he just couldn't cross that barrier."
Travolta finished his first day in court without testifying about the details of the extortion attempt.
However, he did testify that he performed CPR on his son after a nanny alerted him 16-year-old Jett had fallen ill at a family vacation home on Grand Bahama island.
"I ran downstairs with my wife to help my son," Travolta said.
Photos: John Travolta
Travolta is the star witness at the trial of two people -- paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and former Bahamas senator Pleasant Bridgewater -- who are accused of trying to extort $25 million from the movie star. Both defendants pleaded innocent to extortion charges at the trial that began Monday in this island chain off the Florida coast.
It was a rare public appearance for Travolta, 55, who has kept a low profile since Jett's death. He skipped promotional events this summer for his latest film, "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3." He thanked his co-stars on his Web site for giving him time to grieve through their efforts to publicize the film.
Travolta arrived the Supreme Court building in an entourage of sport utility vehicles for his first appearance at the trial. Security was noticeably heavier than previous days with Bahamas police officers surrounding the courthouse.
In his testimony, he said he and Preston were awakened by a nanny around 10:15 a.m. on Jan. 2, the day of Jett's death. Travolta said when he went downstairs, another caretaker was doing chest compressions and he began administering breathing help.
Police say the alleged scheme involved a document related to Jett's treatment. It would have released emergency responders from liability if the family refused an ambulance but police said that did not happen.
A police officer testified Tuesday that Travolta signed the release because he initially wanted his son taken to the airport instead of a local hospital.
A nine-person jury was expected to hear from a total of 14 witnesses, including Travolta.
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I wish John would have used some of his money to find a cure instead of living his life and using his money to hide his secret.
1. www.autismspeaks.org
2. www.autism-society.org
3. www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm This is a good one
4. www.autism.org/ From here you can hit a gob of other web sites.
There is a very broad continuum of symptoms presented that fall under the umbrella of Autism. These range from those so lightly brushed all you can tell about those afflicted is they act "strange" at times; to those so intractably mired that they require 24-7 care. At the more severe end of the spectrum this can mean inability to speak, dress oneself, show affection, adapt to any change in routine, tolerate various sensations and so on.
One of the features that unite all of the various flavors of Autism is some degree of deficiency in engagement. Autistics simply do not connect well. As children, they do not play well or even at all with others. People with Autism also have a very difficult time communicating and for the most part learn to talk late if at all. Because of this, social development is also retarded; indeed it proceeds at a pace that often doesn?t even match continental drift.
In many of the more severe cases one sees ritualistic behaviors called "stereotypical". These behaviors include constant rocking, head rolling, flapping one?s arms, staring at certain objects and ignoring others and the list goes on.
Although some autistic people have "normal" intelligence and can even be quite brilliant, many have some degree of mental retardation or disability. But even those who are not what we euphamistically refer to as mentally challanged often fail to learn effectively under the constraints of a standard public education.
Those who have family members know all this already. My own knowledge of this difficult-to-understand condition was not so much cribbed from the above URLs but culled from my own struggle with this often pernicious disorder. I was diagnosed with an particularly severe case nearly 60 years ago and at that time it was thought that fewer than 1 in 10000 were affected.
Beating this thing has been a lifelong preoccupation and I have made some progress - actually quite a lot. In those several decades of struggle I have managed to obtain a college degree, work continuously for nearly 45 years, marry and raise a family. I mention this to give some measure of encouragement to the loved ones of those who are still shackled by this mysterious and devastating syndrome.
Oh, and you mentioned some of the behaviors, which included arm flapping. He did a lot of that. When he would come and spend the weekend with "Aunt" when he was 10-11 years old, I would sometimes enter the room while he was flapping. He would immediately stop, somewhat embarrassed, but I would never mention it or ask him what he was doing.
Thank you for your post here. Maybe a couple of people here have learned something.
Unfortunately Travolta was too caught up in Scientology and too gullible believing all that ancient alien mind control mumbo jumbo to have gotten his kid the help he needed.
Yes John Travolata there is such a disease as autism and yest Tom Cruise there is such as thing as mental illness and these are not deceptions brought on by an alien conspiracy.
L. Rob Hubbard was a science fiction writer who lived on a yaucht with adolescent boys. This guy was not messiah material.
I actually don't care what you think. That's why we live in a free country with a freedom of speech so with that said to me and with how I feel autism is made up to give our children a reason for learning slower then others. You hear people of tv saying the a child can grow out of it... then it wasn't a real illness to start with and if your nephew is so intelligent maybe he doesn't have autism