John Travolta had all the right moves, but when the chance to dance with Princess Diana came along, even Hollywood’s smoothest dancer got cold feet.
The Princess of Wales and the actor lit up the White House ballroom in 1985, creating one of the most unforgettable moments in royal and Hollywood history. Diana was attending a White House dinner hosted by President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan when she took a spin with the heartthrob.
Nearly four decades later, their legendary dance is being celebrated at “Princess Diana: Love, Life, Legacy — A Life of Giving,” an exhibition at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. More than 700 artifacts connected to Diana’s life are on display.
The collection, presented through a partnership between the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute (RRPFI) and Renae Plant’s Princess Diana Museum, features the velvet gown designed by Victor Edelstein that Diana wore that night.
But the iconic dance nearly didn’t happen.
“In preparation for the state dinner, the Marine Band that was going to perform the music during the dinner was told to rehearse music from ‘Saturday Night Fever,’” Melissa Giller, chief marketing and cultural programming officer at RRPFI, told Fox News Digital.
“The social secretary, Gahl Burt, orchestrated it after speaking with Mrs. Reagan that after the dancing began, Gahl would walk up to John Travolta and tap him on the shoulder and encourage him to have a dance with Princess Diana,” Giller said. “Now through the whole evening, Princess Diana danced with Ronald Reagan. She danced with Clint Eastwood. She danced with Tom Selleck and many others.”
But when it came time for Travolta to step onto the dance floor with Diana, he needed some coaxing.
“When it was time, Gahl Burt walked up to John Travolta and tapped him on the shoulder,” Giller said. “He was actually a bit hesitant. He didn’t know if it was something he should do. But after some encouragement, he went up and asked the princess to dance.”
Travolta mustered the courage and approached Diana. The two then waltzed across the checkered floor to music from “Saturday Night Fever.”
“They ended up dancing for 15 minutes,” Giller said with a smile.
“Every presidential library archive has a photo that’s the most requested by the public. President Nixon’s library is the photo of Elvis meeting President Nixon. And one of our most requested photos is the one of Princess Diana dancing with John Travolta.”
Travolta later admitted he was nervous before approaching Diana.
“I didn’t think they’d ask me to dance with her,” he told Esquire Mexico in 2021. “I had the great privilege and honor of doing so, and I thought, ‘There must be a reason for doing this and I better give it my all.’ That meant lead the dance well and make sure we had fun. That was the easy part, but just the fact of greeting Diana appropriately, being confident and asking her to dance was a complicated task.”
The “Grease” star also recalled how special it was to dance with Diana.
“Think of the setting. We were at the White House. It’s midnight. The stage is like a dream. I approach her, touch her elbow, invite her to dance,” he said. “She spins around and gives me that captivating smile, just a little sad, and accepts my invitation. And there we were, dancing together as if it were a fairytale.”
In the 2021 interview, Travolta also recalled his disbelief over the once-in-a-lifetime encounter.
“Who could imagine that something like this is going to happen to you one day? I was smart enough to register it in my memory as a very special, magical moment.”
Travolta also told Dutch television station Één that it was Nancy who told him Diana wanted to dance with him.
“[She] said, ‘It is her wish,’” the actor recalled. “At midnight, I had to tap her on her shoulder, and I had to say, ‘Would you care to dance?’ She turned around and dipped her head in that Lady Diana way, and we were off for 15 minutes dancing.”
“I’ll never forget it,” he continued. “I’m so honored that I was able to experience this, and I know for a fact that it was her highlight of being in the United States; it was her favorite moment. So I feel I made her life better, she made my life better, and I’m very sorry that she’s not here.”
During a 2016 appearance on “Good Morning America,” Travolta was asked if there was anything from the 1980s that he’d like to bring back to the 2010s. He said he’d love to dance with Diana again.
“That was one of the highlights of my life, so that’s probably the best moment of the ’80s.”
Giller noted that the Prince and Princess of Wales maintained a close friendship with the Reagans.
“When Princess Diana got married to Prince Charles, Ronald Reagan, as President of the United States, could not go because the assassination attempt happened a few months ago and he was [still] recovering,” Giller explained. “So, Mrs. Reagan went on behalf of President Reagan, as well as the United States. And I think that sort of bonded her with Princess Diana, although of course, Mrs. Reagan was much older than Princess Diana.”
“They shared a kinship, especially once Princess Diana became a mother,” Giller said. “You can see that in [their] letters and their relationship.”
The exhibition features letters Nancy and Diana wrote to each other over the years, as well as gifts the Reagans received from the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Giller said the exhibition aims to show visitors the woman behind the royal title, highlighting Diana’s humanitarian work and influence beyond her relationship with the Reagans.
“This isn’t just an exhibition about dresses and shoes and jewelry,” she said. “This is an exhibition about a woman who truly cared about her family, about her people, about all people, not just those in Europe, but around the world.”
The exhibition, which opened Nov. 7, runs through May 31, 2027.
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