On Wednesday, February 18, John Travolta turned 72, and for the big day, his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta shared a sweet tribute.
The actress and singer, 25, is the Grease actor's only daughter with late wife Kelly Preston. He also welcomed son Jett, who tragically passed away at the age of 16 in 2009, and Benjamin, now 15.
© Getty ImagesFor his birthday, Ella took to her Instagram Stories with an adorable childhood photo of herself with her dad, almost unrecognizable with a thick layer of curtain bangs and her wide-eyed smile. Her piercing gaze was still the same though, playing with a strand of her hair while standing next to John. "Happy birthday, I love you soooo much," she wrote with it.
The Hairspray star, meanwhile, took to his own social media page to share that he spent his birthday getting a pilot's license and official rating for the Bombardier Global Express, a luxury business jet liner.
© Instagram"It's my birthday today! And I'm very proud to say I got my license in the Global Express! Thank you for all my birthday wishes!" he captioned a clip he posted, which cut to him in the cockpit telling the camera: "Just accomplished my license in the Global Express SIC," before proudly showing off the jet itself. "Congratulations to me!"
While Ella got her start in acting as well, and continues to do so (she will next co-star in the film Nice People with Sosie Bacon), she is now more ardently pursuing her career in music. The budding songstress released her debut EP, Colors of Love, in 2024.
Upon release, Ella described her music as a tribute to the different shades and perspectives of love and affection that one can experience in life, from the romantic to the familial. One of her songs, "Little Bird," even explicitly honoring her late mother, who passed away in 2020 following a battle with breast cancer.
"I grew up very much so in the public eye. And with that comes a lot of attention, especially when you lose someone," she told People, describing the song as her most "personal," adding: "There's definitely the natural support and global support that comes with that."
"But then, there can be a natural input and expectation of how you should feel or how people assume that you feel or how other people feel, that gets added in," she continued. "'Little Bird' is about holding onto those pure relationships that you have with people that you lost and really just listening to yourself and staying true to that relationship with that person."
© Getty ImagesTime and space to heal after Kelly's death allowed her to approach songwriting in a different way. "It had been a couple years, obviously, since my mom's passing, so I could look at the whole situation and take a step back from it and see what I wanted to communicate on it and what I wanted to communicate to her and what I was feeling in general."
