Olivia Newton-John's nephew shares never-before-seen footage of late star

Race car driver Emerson Newton-John said the videos, from an unaired pilot of his show "Celebrity Car Crush," will "always bring a smile to my face."

Emerson Newton-John is sharing some precious moments of him with his late aunt Olivia Newton-John with the world. 

The 49-year-old race car driver unveiled never-before-seen footage taken of him and the Grease star before her death from breast cancer in August 2022 that was to be featured in an unaired pilot for the series Celebrity Car Crush.

“Even in rapidly declining health due to cancer, and not bearing the strength that she once had, I could see flashes of the young Olivia popping in and out during filming,” he recently told E! News, reflecting on the clips and what they taught him about Olivia. “That alone made all of the time and investment in creating our show Celebrity Car Crush worth it, regardless of whether or not we would eventually watch it on television. There was no acting here; there was just pure surprise, joy, and strong feelings of only positive nostalgia.”

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One clip from the episode features Emerson surprising Olivia with a pastel pink 1975 Volkswagen Bug — the same car she purchased shortly after arriving in the U.S. The “Physical” singer can be seen letting out a little scream of excitement when she spots the vehicle before warning her nephew that she hadn't driven a manual car in years.

“Due to her lack of physical strength at that time, and also because she had not driven a manual car in decades, we were making bets on whether or not she could get the car going without stalling it,” Emerson said. “As much as I believed in her driving ability, I can't deny that I’d bet that she would stall it! Well, not only did she not stall it, but she got away impressively smoothly and never made a mistake the entire time that she drove the car! As one can clearly see by my reaction, I was blown away, as was the entire crew.”

He added, “That memory I will never forget and it will always bring a smile to my face."

Related: Olivia Newton-John's daughter believes her mom's spirit visited her as a 'little blue orb'

In another clip, Olivia explained that she “wasn’t yet earning” the kind of money to afford a fancy convertible when she purchased her Bug. Emerson noted that her transparency about her financial situation brought “a sense of realness about her that her fans might not have seen before.”

He added, “One thing I always found so cool about my aunt was that regardless of her obvious wealth, she was not one to show off her success with material gains. Instead, she intentionally understated so many material aspects of her life. No private jets, no yachts, no ridiculous cars that screamed "look at me." In fact, she drove two Ford Explorers in a row in the '90s so that she wouldn't be recognized. Her theory was, ‘No one would think that I'd drive a "normal" car, so I'll drive a normal car!’”

Emerson explained that Olivia’s plan “didn’t always work,” but it managed to keep her “under the radar more often than had she been in a flashy car.”

“The irony, though," he teased, "was that she'd pull that ‘normal car’ into the gates of one of Malibu's most beautiful and most expensive houses on the water at that time, haha!"

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.