In 2021, Gawker published a tabloid story revolving around the untimely passing of John Travolta’s son, Jett, featuring an old photo of Travolta allegedly kissing their male nanny.

Another story claimed that Travolta had a “secret” gay sex life and frequented bath spas in Los Angeles; however, this wasn’t the first time Travolta’s sexuality was questioned.

In 2014, Travolta was hit with a lawsuit from Douglas Gotterba, a former pilot for his aircraft company, who claimed he had an affair with the actor in the 1980s.

In 2017, Travolta finally addressed the rumors about his sexuality in an interview with the Daily Beast saying that rumors and tell-all threats are “every celebrity’s Achilles heel.”

“It’s just about people wanting money,” Travolta explained. The actor also admitted that he finds it “offensive” when his family gets dragged into the gossip.

“I found it most offensive with the loss of my son [...] I always felt like the media — not all of the media, but parts of it — went too low there,” Travolta confessed.