On January 2, 2009, Jett Travolta hit his head on a bathtub while having a seizure during a family vacation in the Bahamas, a tragedy that his father John Travolta later called "the worst thing that's ever happened in my life."
Find a GraveJett Travolta died at just 16 years old after having a seizure and hitting his head.
In January 2009, 16-year-old Jett Travolta — the son of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston — was found unconscious in his hotel bathroom at the Old Bahama Bay resort on Grand Bahama Island. He had been on vacation with his family when he suddenly suffered a seizure and hit his head on the bathtub, an injury that proved to be fatal.
Jett Travolta’s cause of death seemed straightforward. He had a long history of seizures, and his family had even taken precautions to closely monitor him during their vacation.
However, skeptics were wary to accept this at face value. The Travoltas’ connection to Scientology sparked significant online discussion, with some quick to blame the church’s teachings for Jett’s death. Others were more empathetic, recognizing that the loss of a child is devastating, no matter what religion you may practice.
In either case, Jett Travolta’s death cast a far greater shadow than anyone would have expected.
How Did Jett Travolta Die?
Jett Travolta was born on April 13, 1992, just a year after his parents, actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston, married. He quickly captured his father’s heart. In a 1994 interview with PEOPLE, John Travolta recalled Jett’s birth, saying, “After he was born and cleaned up, I held him for hours while Kelly slept. When they came to take him away for various tests, I said, ‘No, you can’t see him today. You’ll have to do it another day.’ I went a little nutsy.”
“I can’t imagine what life would be like without Jett,” Travolta continued.
Travolta and Preston mostly kept their three children out of the spotlight aside from the odd photo shoot or red carpet appearance, so little is known about Jett’s early life. After his death, his parents revealed that he was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease as a toddler. The condition typically affects young children and can cause damage to the heart and blood vessels, but it’s unlikely it had anything to do with Jett’s demise.
WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoJohn Travolta with his two youngest children, Ella and Benjamin, at a film festival in 2013.
John Travolta revealed more about his son’s medical conditions during a 2009 extortion trial against a paramedic and a Bahamas government official, who were accused of threatening to leak some of Jett’s hospital records if Travolta didn’t pay them $25 million. “He was autistic,” Travolta testified in court, as reported by The Guardian at the time. “He suffered from a seizure disorder.”
Jett typically had a seizure every five to 10 days, according to his father’s testimony, and each one lasted between 45 seconds and a minute. The teen had constant supervision, and the Travolta family reportedly took extra precautions to ensure he would remain safe during their Bahamas vacation, such as employing two nannies and installing alarms on the bathroom door.
However, around 10:15 a.m. on Jan. 2, 2009, one of the nannies woke Travolta and Preston and informed them that Jett was unresponsive on the bathroom floor. “I ran downstairs with my wife to help my son,” Travolta recalled. The actor started performing CPR — but it was too late.
Jett Travolta’s cause of death was officially ruled as a “seizure disorder.” The teen seemingly fell and hit his head on the bathtub as he was having a seizure, lost consciousness, and was unable to be revived. He was just 16 years old.
As John Travolta and Kelly Preston mourned the loss of their son, however, the internet swirled with conspiracies about Jett Travolta’s death.
Online Rumors About Jett Travolta’s Cause Of Death
The Travolta family’s connection to the Church of Scientology fueled an array of rumors in the immediate aftermath of Jett Travolta’s death. Some people claimed that the Travoltas were in denial about Jett’s autism diagnosis because Scientology purportedly teaches that the disorder is psychosomatic. There were allegations that Travolta and Preston put Jett on a “detox” program created by L. Ron Hubbard instead of seeking typical therapies.
Even if this were the case, however, there is no evidence the Travoltas weren’t treating Jett’s seizure disorder. In fact, Travolta’s attorneys stated that Jett took the anti-seizure drug Depakote for a period of time, and his parents only stopped giving it to him when doctors advised them to.
GTCRFOTO / Alamy Stock PhotoJohn Travolta and Kelly Preston leave court after testifying against two men who were allegedly trying to extort $25 million from the family after Jett Travolta’s death. The case was eventually dropped.
The Church of Scientology also denied these rumors. A spokesman for the church stated, “Scientologists use medical drugs when physically ill and also rely on the advice and treatment of medical doctors.” Actor Tom Cruise also came to the Travolta family’s defense, confirming that the religion does not discourage mainstream medical treatment.
However, lost in the online discussion was the more grounded and heartbreaking truth of the matter: A family, albeit a famous one, had lost a child, and no amount of internet discourse or finger-pointing could change that or alleviate their pain.
Scientology’s Role In Helping A Grieving Father Heal
Two days after Jett Travolta died, John Travolta and Kelly Preston released a statement on Travolta’s website that read: “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.”
Otherwise, the two were understandably tight-lipped about their son’s death in the immediate aftermath. However, Travolta did speak about his healing process in the years that followed.
GTCRFOTO / Alamy Stock PhotoA makeshift memorial put up to support the Travolta family after Jett’s Travolta death.
In 2014, the actor opened up about the tragedy during an interview at the Theatre Rural Drury Lane in London. As reported by the Toronto Sun at the time, he called Jett Travolta’s death “the worst thing that’s ever happened in my life.”
“The truth is, I didn’t know if I was going to make it,” Travolta said. “Life was no longer interesting to me, so it took a lot to get me better.”
While Travolta never commented on any of the “detox” allegations, he did praise the Church of Scientology for helping him deal with the grief of losing his son. “I will forever be grateful to Scientology for supporting me for two years solid, I mean Monday through Sunday,” the actor said during the interview. “They didn’t take a day off, working through different angles of the techniques to get through grief and loss, and to make me feel that finally I could get through a day.”
Tragically, Jett Travolta’s death wasn’t the end of his father’s grief. Kelly Preston was diagnosed with breast cancer less than 10 years later, and she died at the age of 57 on July 12, 2020. In the years since the loss of his wife and son, John Travolta has focused on raising his two remaining children while honoring the memories of Jett and Kelly.
After learning about 16-year-old Jett Travolta’s cause of death, go inside the tragic death of Cory Monteith. Then, learn more about Grace Kelly’s death in a car crash.
