Unlikely classmates: Olivia spotted in same row as another Aussie icon
An Australian icon has shared their primary school class photo, which features a young Olivia Newton-John before she shot to stardom.
The photo also unearthed the little known fact that Olivia went to school with another giant of the Australian entertainment industry: Daryl Braithwaite.
Just days after Olivia died from breast cancer, Braithwaite, 73, shared the black-and-white class photo taken at Christ Church Grammar School in Melbourne in 1961.
“This is a lovely shot to look back at when Olivia was at (school) with all her friends back in 1961. Olivia is 2nd from the right and 3rd row from the bottom,” wrote Braithwaite, who is in the same row on the very far left.
He added, “She also loved all animals and was a beautiful soul who left a legacy that will endure forever.”
His post was flooded with comments, as people couldn't believe Daryl and Olivia's friendship went all the way back to primary school.
One person said, "Who would of thought that two of Australia's greatest ever singers would come out of that class photo."
Braithwaite has previously opened up about how the duo were briefly “boyfriend and girlfriend” while at the same school, before Newton-John moved to London in her teenage years.
“She was one of the prettiest girls in the class, (we were) 11 or 12 I think,” he told The Morning Show in 2017.
“I don’t know how, we must have sat next to each other and thought, ‘Oh yeah that’s good’ and we were talking and then we held hands and then it was over.”
After their fleeting romance, Braithwaite said that the pair always stayed friends.
He told Now to Love in 2020, “It is one of those friendships where there was a decade, or maybe more, where we didn’t speak to each other, mainly because we were too busy or whatever, but over the last year or so I have made more contact with her than ever before, and she is lovely, she really is.”
Image credits: Instagram