It’s been nine months since the Hollywood star John Travolta of Grease fame lost his 57 year-old wife Kelly Preston to breast cancer. Now, the actor is speaking out to say that mourning is a “personal” experience.

“I have learned that mourning someone, mourning, is personal. Mourning is individual and experiencing your own journey is what can lead to healing,” Travolta told Esquire Spain. “This is different from someone else’s journey. The most important thing you can do to help another when they are in mourning is to allow them to live it and not complicate it with yours. That’s my experience.”

“Life is movement and a journey; what you leave behind in people, I guess that’s your legacy,” he added. “How they interpret my life will be different for each one. And that’s fine, because that will be me. The best thing I do is try to get to that part of life that allows me to enjoy it, and that joy is experiencing dance, music … and people.”

Travolta also talked about the two children that he and Preston share, Ella, 21, and Ben, 10.

“I will ensure the future of my children, help them with what they want to do with their lives,” he said. “It is what I do with Ella now with her films and teaching her to work in the profession. Ben is barely ten-years-old. I want to help him evolve because he has his whole life ahead of him.”

Later in the interview, Travolta explained how being a celebrity helped to “train” him for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Fame is what has trained me for this 2020. When you are a “celebrity” you live in a bubble. Cloistered like an oyster,” he said.

Fans were stunned when Preston passed away last July, as she had not told the public that she was battling 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 wrote on Instagram 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.”

“Kelly’s love and life will always be remembered,” he added. “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. All my love, JT.”