Inside Ella Bleu Travolta’s Private Life as John Travolta’s Daughter, According to Insiders

Ella Bleu Travolta’s childhood came with the kind of surreal Hollywood moments most people only hear about: losing a baby tooth while aboard a boat with Oprah Winfrey, having dinner at home with her teenage celebrity crush Taylor Lautner, and growing up around some of the industry’s most recognizable stars. 

As the daughter of John Travolta, and with ambitions of building her own acting career, it would be easy to assume Ella would be a constant presence on red carpets and in celebrity circles.

But the 26-year-old has taken a much quieter path. She is seldom seen in public outside of work commitments and is understood to spend much of her time with her father, 72. The pair often share affectionate messages on Instagram, publicly celebrating their close bond and mutual pride.

‘For the most part Ella lives at home with her father and when she travels, she usually stays with friends or family,’ one insider told the Daily Mail. ‘She’s met a lot of people through John, but she only has a small circle of close friends. She’s a very private person.’

Ella is the eldest daughter of Travolta and his late wife, Kelly Preston. The couple also shared son Ben, now 15. Preston died in July 2020, two years after being diagnosed with breast cancer. The family had previously endured another devastating loss in 2009, when Travolta and Preston’s eldest child, Jett, died at age 16 following a seizure.

‘Losing Jett and Kelly brought John and Ella even closer,’ the insider said. ‘Even though Ella’s in her mid-twenties, John is still her guiding light.’

Indeed, she still lives with her dad at his $3.3 million five-bedroom home in Ocala, Florida – complete with two runways. In her spare time she enjoys listening to Harry Styles, Norah Jones, Carly Simon and Billie Eilish, as well as baking, in particular banana bread.

So keen a hobby, she once ran Ella Bleu Bakes, an Instagram page dedicated to her vegan creations and the occasional restaurant recommendation.

But unlike her contemporaries and fellow nepo babies, Ella Bleu’s social media accounts are sparse. The actress, who boasts Selma Blair, Hannah Waddingham, Emma Roberts and Alec Baldwin among her 725,000 Instagram followers, shares next to nothing of her private life on the platform, merely promoting films or collaborations with brands including Prada and Tod’s.

And when it comes to TikTok, she has seemingly given up altogether, last posting in December 2023 to promote her then-new music.

Another insider said her apparent reticence to post like some of her contemporaries is because ‘her friends aren’t famous.’ ‘She’s friendly with some of John’s friends’ kids who have known her forever,’ they said.

But her relatively unknown existence has raised questions about her upbringing, namely: is her life restricted because of her connection to Scientology?

After all, she was primarily home-schooled and bought up by two devout Scientologist parents who would take her to events connected to the controversial religion.

Singer turned political commentator Joy Villa previously claimed Ella Bleu was ‘stuck’ in Scientology because followers are ‘taught that if you leave, you’ll be disconnected’ and abandoned in the ‘evil’ outside world.

Villa, who claims she got to know Ella at Flag – the ‘spiritual headquarters’ of the Church of Scientology – when she was just 13, described her as ‘very shy, sweet and introverted,’ in an interview with journalist Tony Ortega last May.

‘She and John were there at Flag every day… And at that time, Ella was very overweight,’ said Villa, who announced that she left Scientology last year. ‘The reason was that her dad would feed her at night whatever she wanted.’

When Villa later met a slimmed down 16-year-old Ella, she said she was ‘gracious’ for her age and ‘very well mannered.’

Villa joined the Church in 2011 before defecting 15 years later, describing it as ‘satanic’ and a ‘control system.’

‘John and Ella are both followers of Scientology but they hardly ever discuss it publicly,’ said our first insider. ‘In fact, rarely with people outside the Church. Ella and John said it’s helped them through the very tough times they’ve both had to endure. They haven’t said much more.’

Back in 2019, Ella Bleu showed up at an awards ceremony at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, on May 9 – or ‘Dianetics Day’ – one of Scientology’s holiest days on the calendar celebrating the day L Ron Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

Wearing a Dianetics pin, Ella Bleu was pictured posing with Antonio Rosales, a Scientologist who was awarded for being Top Producer Book One Auditor for 2019.

‘That was the first time I had noticed that she was following in her dad’s footsteps and that she had been brought up in Scientology,’ Ortega told the Daily Mail.

‘She went through some awkward years there. I’m sure there was a lot of expectation about whether she’d go into acting and I know she kind of had some very awkward years with her weight.

‘Well, now she’s turned into just a beautiful young woman.’

He continued: ‘She’s following [Travolta’s] footsteps in Scientology and she’s following in his footsteps in acting. And certainly, you could expect that a guy like John Travolta would want that for his child.’

And following closely in her father’s footsteps she is, so far only starring in two out of six movies without him. They also share a publicist in PMK Entertainment. 

Ella Bleu made her onscreen debut in 2009 in her father’s movie Old Dogs after declaring, aged seven, that she was ready to act. Then followed a decade break before she landed a role in 2019’s The Poison Rose, alongside her dad. The pair were back together recently to promote Travolta’s directorial debut Propeller: One-Way Night Coach.

Travolta said the film was a ‘chance also to introduce Ella in the light that I wanted the world to see her because I wanted it to be A Star Is Born, and it really was. It’s really evident now. People agree with me on Ella in this movie.’

Upcoming projects include comedy horror film Nice People and survival thriller Black Tides in which she will star alongside – you guessed it – her dad.

Back in 2023 Ella Bleu released her debut album, with Travolta listed as a producer on her single Little Bird – an ode to memories of her late mother.

‘John is one of the most protective fathers I’ve ever known,’ our first insider said. ‘He’s had so many losses in his life that he holds on to Ella and Ben in a way I’ve never seen.

‘It’s not like he smothers them. They’re just the center of his world. They have a bond that is something very special, beautiful and unusual.’

The feeling is evidently mutual, with Ella Bleu previously describing her father as ‘my biggest fan,’ telling Parade magazine: ‘And I’m his biggest fan. So, there’s a lot of support going on.’

With 50 years in the industry and a veteran at dealing with the endless criticism over his connection to Scientology it is perhaps no surprise Travolta would want to protect his daughter as much as possible. 

‘She’s the daughter of one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world, so there’s just certain realities about that that they have to be careful of,’ Ortega said.

Most recently she had to endure wild – and unproven – claims that her brother Ben’s real biological mother is Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough.

A lawsuit filed by Priscilla Presley’s former business associates Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko back in December alleged that Keough donated her eggs to Travolta and Preston so that the couple could welcome their son Ben, now 15, in 2010 – which, if true, would make the teenager Elvis’s great-grandson.

It was also alleged that Riley’s late mother Lisa Marie Presley had also previously donated her eggs so that Preston could ‘get pregnant.’

Presley’s attorney slammed the ‘outrageous allegations.’

With fame comes an interest in a celebrity’s dating life – with Travolta’s approval paramount.

‘John doesn’t ask for approval on who Ella dates. It’s not as if she dates a lot,’ said our first insider: ‘But when she does, she always makes sure to get his OK.’

Ella Bleu has said little about her dating life and has yet to step out publicly with a partner, mostly joining her dad on red carpets. But in a candid moment last year she revealed how she experienced her ‘first love’ while penning her album three years ago.

Speaking to Spanish publication Mujerhoy about her song Lost in Your World, she said: ‘It was perhaps the first song I wrote in real time, when I was experiencing first love. It was something completely new, and I was thinking, “What’s happening to me? What are these new feelings?”

‘I was also wondering if the other person felt the same way, what would happen in the future… I was composing it and falling in love at the same time. It’s one of my favorite songs because I poured so much of myself into it.’

A third insider said she ‘hopes to find the kind of lasting; meaningful relationship her parents found with each other,’ but that her focus right now is ‘firmly on building her career and chasing her ambitions,’ adding: ‘Love and dating can take a back seat for now.’

They also rejected the notion that Ella Bleu is restricted by Scientology, claiming ‘it isn’t dictating her life and her career as some might assume.’

‘She is maturing through loss and the determination to get better as a person and to get better in a profession,’ they said. ‘She just has her head on straight, unlike a lot of celebs kids, she breaks the mold.’