John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s son Jett, 16, passed away in early January after suffering a seizure and hitting his head in the bathroom at his parents’ vacation home in the Bahamas. The family has only stated publicly that their son suffered from Kawasaki Syndrome, a chemically-induced childhood disorder that does not explain all of Jett’s symptoms. Jett was nonverbal and has been photographed walking on his tip toes. There was speculation that he was autistic, although that was never confirmed by the Travoltas.

Jett’s death was controversial due to the fact that his parents are members of the Church of Scientology, which does not believe in psychiatric illness and strongly discourages followers from using any form of psychiatric drugs. Fellow Scientologists maintain that physical illnesses, like autism, are permitted to be treated under their belief system. The Travoltas say they did treat Jett’s seizures with the drug Depakote, but that it simply stopped working for him after several years and he was taken off it under the guidance of a neurologist. What’s more is that Jett had a full time nanny, but the man wasn’t thought to be trained in childcare and works as a photographer.

It’s unlikely that we’ll ever know if Jett would have had the seizure that led to his death if he was on another drug or if someone with formal training was watching him. There’s been enough speculation about his death by people who aren’t affected by it. His parents are probably heartbroken wondering if there was anything they could have done differently to have saved their son.

Now there’s news that two people in the Bahamas, including a “politician” who may be involved in the investigation into Jett’s death, have tried to extort millions from the Travoltas. It’s unknown what kind of damning information they claim to have:

John Travolta lawyers fighting extortion demands made after the death of son Jett.

Bahamas based newspaper, TheTribune, reported police are investigating two co-conspirators “one believed to be a politician” in an ongoing investigation.

Travolta’s attorneys, Mike Ossi and Howard Butler, released a statement in Jacksonville, Florida after returning from the Bahamas: “Regrettably in a time of such terrible grief there are often a few individuals who attempt to make false claims in hopes of making millions of dollars.

“We will never let that happen.”

Ossi and Butler’s said they have “the utmost confidence in the Bahamian police and government” as it investigates the alleged extortion attempt.

The barristers then declined further comment.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s son Jett,15, died at their Grand Bahama vacation home. Official cause of death was listed as “seizure” after the teen was found unconscious in the Travolta family bathroom.

[From The National Enquirer's website]

Initial reports by TMZ, which were said to have been confirmed by Bahamian police, had Jett hitting his head in the bathroom the night before he was discovered. The family strongly denied these claims and said he suffered the accident in the morning not long before he was found.

The entire investigation is now compromised by this extortion attempt. If the police had any information that may cast doubt on the Travolta’s account of Jett’s death, it’s not like they’re going to be able to do much with the case now that it’s been tainted. Blackmail from an official will pretty much negate any findings that may implicate the Travoltas and cast doubt on the integrity of all the evidence. So now we have a grieving family that has to endure these claims, whatever they may be, and an investigation that’s shot.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston are shown at The Oscars last year. Credit: WENN

Jett Travolta has died as a result of a seizure, his death certificate has confirmed. There are no suspicious circumstances and his body has been returned to his family. The autopsy results may or may not be released to the pubic.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s 16-year-old son, Jett, who had a history of health problems, was killed by a “seizure,” according to the death certificate issued today.

While the official results of an autopsy today have yet to been publicly announced, mortician Glen Campbell of the Restview Memorial Mortuary in the Bahamas confirmed to E! News that cause of death was a seizure and “there was no sign of head trauma.”

“The body was in good condition,” Campbell said.

A source close to the proceedings also told E! News that a preliminary report on Jett’s death determined “there is no foul play,” corroborating what a Travolta family lawyer initially stated last Friday.

“It is not a suspicious death. The body wouldn’t already be turned over to the mortuary if there was anything suspicious,” the source said. Autopsies are standard procedure in the Bahamas in cases of sudden death.

E! News

I don’t think there was much question of Jett’s cause of death, given his medical history, but an autopsy stops any questions that might linger for the family. Please note that the ‘no sign of head trauma’ comment is from the mortician, not the pathologist, who would know more accurately the signs of head trauma. This does not mean that Jett didn’t hit his head, as reported earlier. Death certificates can be strange in their causes – my grandfather died of cancer, but on his death certificate it says ‘heart failure’ because that was technically his cause of death.

The lawyers of the Travolta family have given a statement suggesting that Jett may have died in his father’s arms.

“He never dreamed of this – their relationship was so close,” says family attorney Mike Ossi, who is in the Bahamas with the actor. “He always said ‘I’m happy as long as my kids are happy.’ He is heartbroken … To bury your son is the worst thing you can ever do.”

According to Ossi, 16-year-old Jett was discovered by a nanny on Friday morning around 10 a.m. After the nanny called 911, John Travolta tried in vain to resuscitate his son.

“He didn’t want anything to happen to that boy, and he kept on trying to revive him,” said Ossi. “He did mouth-to-mouth until they had to physically remove John to take Jett to the hospital.”

The teen, who is the only son of Travolta, 54, and Preston, 46, has a history of having seizures. Police spokeswoman Loretta Mackey told the Associated Press that Jett hit his head in a bathtub Friday morning and was declared dead at Rand Memorial Hospital.

According to Ossi, around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 1, John said goodnight to his son, who was tired from a long day spent on the water with his family. Jett went to his room with his nanny. “He always had a nanny by his side because he had a history of seizures,” says Ossi. “John took extra precautions. [Jett] was never alone.”

Mike McDermott, John’s corporate counsel, adds, “John did everything in his power to revive [his son.] John and Jett had a very strong relationship. Words cannot explain how close they were. This will take a lot of time. His life will never be the same again.”

People

I hope this is true, because, as Ossi points out, this is the worst case scenario for any parent. Being with them when they died would be the best outcome you could possibly hope for in these circumstances.

Yesterday the emergency crew spoke about the scene, saying that both John and his wife Kelly Preston traveled with Jett in the ambulance to the hospital, where they were speaking to him.

This is just such a tragedy. People magazine have dug up an interview with John Travolta where he says in 1994 that he can’t imagine life without his son. No parent wants to think about what life would be like without them, it’s just too horrifying. I’m hugging my kids a little tighter today; my heart goes out to the Travolta family.

Photos courtesy of Travolta.com

Jett Travolta, 16, died after suffering a seizure and a fall in the bathroom of his parents’ vacation home in the Bahamas. His body was discovered on Friday morning. Police sources have him falling and drowning in the bathtub late Thursday night, a claim his parents deny. They say he fell in the morning right before he was found and that he was well cared for and watched by two in-house nannies. Jett leaves behind his parents, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, and sister Ella, 8.

Jett was rumored to have suffered from autism, which often co-exists with a seizure disorder but does not have seizures listed among the symptoms. Jett’s mother, Kelly Preston, has only stated that her son had Kawasaki disease, a rare immune disorder caused by early childhood exposure to toxic chemicals.

In May of 2007, a story came out that John Travolta and Kelly Preston were ignoring their son Jett’s autism. It was based on an interview with one of their neighbors, a restaurant owner who happened to have a four year-old autistic child and recognized some of the symptoms in Jett when the family came in to his establishment to eat. The neighbor told Hollywood, Interrupted that he asked Travolta to get involved in autism fundraisers and was rebuffed. According to this guy’s diagnosis from afar, John and Kelly weren’t getting the proper therapy for their child and were letting him eat junk food and play video games. The neighbor didn’t explain how he knew that John Travolta and Kelly Preston were neglecting Jett, and it seemed to be based on just seeing them in his restaurant and getting handed a Scientology booklet by Travolta.

Scientology does not recognize autism
John Travolta and Kelly Preston are Scientologists. Scientology is a well-documented harmful cult that does not recognize autism as a disorder, does not allow followers to use psychiatric medication, and often blames sufferers for mental illness.

We don’t know if Jett had autism or what his care was like
All we have is rumor and one guy’s questionable assessment that suggests Jett had poor care. We don’t know if he had autism, if he was receiving therapy or treatment, or if his parent’s belief system contributed to his death in any way. From the reports that Travolta’s people are giving TMZ, it sounds like Jett had very good care and that it was a terrible accident.

Jett was on anti-convulsant medication for a long time
According to the Travoltas, Jett was on anti-convulsant medication for years but it eventually stopped working for him. They say they met with neurologists who decided to take him off the medication as it was no longer effective. Even with medication people can still suffer from seizures and accidents do happen. Hunter Tylo’s son died last year at 19 after having a seizure and falling into a pool and no one blamed her or her husband for his death.

There’s little reason to blame the parents and it’s hurtful
Now that John and Kelly have suffered an immeasurable loss, people are making the unjustified logical leap that they must be responsible in some way since their “religion” doesn’t recognize autism as a disorder and preaches against the use of psychiatric drugs. I’m as against Scientology as the next person, but you can’t take some small pieces of information and jump to conclusions. It’s fine to speculate when it involves someone’s love life, but when it involves the death of child it can be hurtful to say the least.

We don’t know all the details surrounding his condition or his death, some early stories have been inaccurate, and even the medical experts among us couldn’t pass judgment without being privy to the facts.

Let’s not blame this suffering family for something we have no clue about. They’ve already lost their son and none of us know the circumstances of their home life or what happened that led to their son’s death.

John Travolta has issued a statement on his website about his son’s death. He says, in part: “Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered. We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives.”

Update: Many of you have pointed out that John Travolta’s brother Joey made a documentary about autism in 2006 called “Normal People Scare Me,” in which John and Jett were not involved. It was thought to have been directed in some way at his brother.

The skepticism about Jett’s treatment is completely understandable given his parent’s involvement in Scientology. Of course there needs to be a thorough investigation and maybe the increased focused on the very dangerous practices of Scientology will finally help bring this criminal organization down. They need to be tried under the RICO act in the US.

All that said, I’m very disappointed at other media outlets’ rush to judgment. Look at what happened with the Heath Ledger case. The initial details were wrong and people condemned and dismissed him as a drug addict. That was a full grown man who had died from a drug interaction, and this is a teen boy who was disabled and suffered seizures. He’s barely dead and people are already saying “His parents are Scientologists, told you so.”

John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s 16-year-old son Jett has died, according to TMZ. No details have been released about the cause of death or when it happened – all that’s known is that the family was vacationing in the Bahamas, and a hospital there has confirmed Jett’s passing.

Rand Memorial Hospital in the Bahamas tells TMZ the son of John Travolta died today.

We’re told 16-year-old Jett was vacationing with Travolta and wife Kelly Preston. We do not know the circumstances of his death.

There have been reports that Jett was autistic, though Travolta has denied it, saying he suffers from Kawasaki Syndrome, a condition which often leads to heart disease.

[From TMZ]

We will keep this story updated as more information becomes available. Our hearts go out to the Travolta/Preston family.

Update: MSNBC said that Jett suffered a seizure during which he hit his head on the bathtub.

The teenage son of actor John Travolta died suddenly on Friday during a family vacation in the Bahamas, according to the family’s lawyer.

Jett Travolta, 16, suffered a seizure at his family’s vacation home at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel on Grand Bahama Island, attorney Michael Ossi said. According to Access Hollywood, Jett fell and hit his head on the bathtub in his hotel room.

Attempts were made to revive him, but he died at the scene, Ossi said.

Jett, who had a history of seizures, was the eldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston. They also have a daughter, Ella Blue, who was born in 2000.

[From MSNBC]

Here’s John Travolta, Kelly Preston with kids Jett and Ella Bleu, leaving an airport in Rome on November 5th, 2005. Images thanks to Splash.

Miley Cyrus had even more photos released last week showing her lifting her top to show her stomach and pouting at the camera. They were more of the same facebook-style photos of Miley, which have had less attention from the public than that backless Vanity Fair picture. That one picture somehow seemed to capture the premature sexualization and objectification of young teens in the media, and sparked a huge debate. Meanwhile Miley has scores of private photos that have been leaked which are much racier but not as well publicized.

Now Miley has struck up a friendship with John Travolta after they worked on the animated Disney film Bolt together. Travolta’s wife Kelly Preston told a reporter that her husband will possibly sing a duet with Miley. Cue the inevitable question that comes up when a celebrity gets to know John Travolta or Tom Cruise: Are they being groomed for the cult of Scientology? There is plenty of pressure on these celebrities to bring more famous people into the fold, so it’s a legitimate concern:

Miley Cyrus can still command a stadium-size crowd and raked in $18.2 million in 2007 along playing Disney’s Hannah Montana. So it’s not surprising that they 15-year-old has become a sought-after commodity for Scientology, and her pal John Travolta is the most likely person to do the recruiting!

[From Star Magazine, print edition, June 2, 2008]

Miley is young and impressionable, and you could see her falling for something like this, but her family are devout Christians. Miley even made a YouTube video talking about how she loved Jesus. Some insiders claim that Scientologists tell new recruits that you can be a member of their cult and still follow Christianity, Judaism, or any religion you prefer. This is contradicted by the teachings of founder L. Ron Hubbard and to the basic tenets of Scientology, which some Christians claim are anti-Christian and anti-Jesus.

You just hope Miley keeps Travolta and his family at arm’s length. His wife is trying to hype up their relationship with the young superstar, though, so it’s not that far of a stretch to think that they’re also trying to convert her and her family to the cult that has such a stronghold on them. Travolta converted his old “Grease” co-star Jeff Conaway to Scientology under the guise of helping him beat his drug addiction. They surely have a way of helping Miley with her singing, or maybe they have training to assist with her public image, since Cruise and Travolta have had so much success in that department since joining the cult.

Miley Cyrus is shown performing on 5/17/08 in East Rutherford, NJ, thanks to WENN. John Travolta is shown on 4/25/08 at a ceremony presenting Michael Eisner with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

Those wacky Scientologists are so funny. One of their mouthpieces, Kelly Preston, is telling Starpulse that she knew she’d marry John Travolta after she saw a picture of him on a “Grease” poster. She didn’t exactly end up with Travolta right away – she was engaged to Charlie Sheen but broke up with him after he accidentally shot her in the arm, and was married to actor Kevin Gage from 1986 – 1988.

“Actress Kelly Preston knew she was destined to marry John Travolta after she saw her future husband on a poster for Grease as a teenage girl. The 44-year-old Twins star, who has been married to Travolta for 16 years, was leaving a cinema in the late 1970s when she was struck by the actor’s poster look.

“She says, ‘I did have sort of a flash. I came out of a film, saw the poster for Grease and I knew I’d be with him. I just knew. I was about 16 years old. I really knew it and it turned into, ‘I’m going to marry that man,’ and so he likes to tease me that I walked out and said, ‘I’m going to marry that man,’ and then did, ultimately.’”

[From Starpulse]

Talk about the power of positive thought. I had a dream last night that I fell in love with Luke Wilson, and it was kind of flash-like, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to marry him now, based on the Kelly Preston theory of love. Travolta has recently stated that he and Kelly are going to try to have another child when they’re done filming their movie.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston are planning to extend their family – before it’s too late.

The couple are currently working on new movie Old Dogs, which they both star in. When that’s wrapped the pair will start trying for a sibling for son Jett, 15, and eight year old daughter Ella.

Travolta, 53, says, “Once we finish our new movie, we’re going to get cracking. Kelly is 44 now. The window for us to have a child, at least naturally, is closing.”

[From China Daily]

I hope he meant to say another child, not a child, since they already have two – though by most accounts, they mostly ignore their oldest child, Jett, who has autism. Apparently Scientology and autism don’t mix – our original article noted, “Autistics in Scientology are usually known as ‘degraded beings’ who brought the affliction on themselves. Kelly Preston has gone as far as saying in the past that Jett suffers from Kawasaki Syndrome like disease because of ‘environmental toxins’, with Jett reacting badly specifically to carpet cleaning chemicals.” But apparently Preston is an expert on how to treat other disorders – specifically addiction. She has opened a Scientology-based rehab facility in her native Hawaii.

“John Travolta’s wife Kelly Preston has opened a new Scientology rehab center on her native Hawaii. The new drug rehabilitation clinic, which follows the principals of Preston’s religion, will use tried and tested alternative methods to ween addicts off painkillers and hard drugs.

“Preston, who was born on and brought up in Honolulu, Oahu, says, ‘I’m convinced this rehab center works.’”

[From Starpulse]

Well thank goodness we have Kelly Preston around to teach us all how to live better by denying out basic psychological makeup.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Kelly and John at the “Death Sentence” New York City Movie Premiere on August 28th. Images thanks to PR Photos.