For years now, John Travolta has been plagued by accusations of homosexuality, despite his 27 year-long marriage with Kelly Preston. The long history of rumours dates back decades, and features allegations of a six-year-long gay affair with a pilot, a sexual battery accusation from a male masseur, as well numerous comments from celebrities; perhaps most notably Carrie Fisher in 2010 when she said "We don’t really care that John Travolta is gay."
However, in a recent interview, his close friend Kirstie Alley denied the rumours, claiming that she knows for a fact the actor isn't gay - because the pair were madly in love with each other in the 1980s.
The American actress - who came runner-up in the recent Celebrity Big Brother finale - opened up about her relationship with the Grease star to British newspaper, The Sun, stating that they never consummated their love, as she was married to then-husband Parker Stevenson.
"John would agree it was mutual that we sort of fell in love with each other," she said. "I will say it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, the hardest decision I’ve ever made because I was madly in love with him — we were fun and funny together."
She continued: "It wasn’t a sexual relationship because I’m not going to cheat on my husband. But you know I think there are things that are way worse than sexual relationships, than cheating on someone that way. I consider what I did even worse because I actually let myself fall in love with him and stay in love with him for a long time."
In addition, the 55-year-old claims that John pursued a serious relationship with Kelly Preston on her advice, saying: "When it became very apparent that I was staying married, he started seeing Kelly again."
However, despite her resolve to remain faithful to her partner, Kirstie insinuated that she still enjoyed flirting with the Hairspray star, admitting that Kelly once confronted her about her behaviour
She recalled: "Kelly came up to me — and they were married then — and she said, 'Erm, why are you flirting with my husband?' And that was sort of when I had to make a decision and that was pretty much the end of that."
When questioned about John's sexuality by The Sun's Dan Wootton, the Look Who's Talking star apparently "vigorously" shook her head and said: "No I don’t. I mean, I know him pretty well — and I know the love..."
Nowadays, Kirstie claims to be "best pals and kindred spirits" with John and his wife of almost 30 years, and revealed she believes it was best they never had a chance to be together, as they would have "devoured" one another.
"John and I would have devoured each other because John and I are so alike," the actress, who now lives next door to her former love and his family, reportedly said. "It would be like two blazing stars that just fizzled out. John goes to bed at like four or five in the morning and wakes up at three in the afternoon. I go to bed at nine o’clock at night and wake up at five in the morning we basically would have not have seen each other. It would have been a disaster."
It's not the first time, the 55-year-old - who also revealed she resisted Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze back in the day - has opened up about her relationship with "best friend" John. On Celebrity Big Brother, she had casually revealed that she "almost ran off and married" the actor, adding "I did love him; I still love him". John himself hasn't commented on her claims yet.
It just shows, we can gossip all we like, but we never really know what's going on behind closed doors with celebrities.