Kelly Preston was born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith on October 13, 1962, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother, Linda, was an administrator at a mental health center, and her father worked for an agricultural firm until he tragically drowned when Kelly was just four years old.

Her mother later married Peter Palzis, a personnel director, who adopted Kelly and gave her his last name at the start of her acting career. Kelly also had a younger half-brother, Chris Palzis.

As a child, she lived in Iraq for a brief period before moving to Australia, where she attended Pembroke School in Adelaide. She later returned to Hawaii and graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu in 1980. She went on to study drama and theater at the University of Southern California.

Her acting career began when she was discovered by a fashion photographer at the age of 16 while living in Australia. She started with commercials and small parts before landing her first significant film role in 1985 as Marilyn McCauley in the romantic teen comedy "Mischief."

She quickly followed this with another teen romantic comedy, "Secret Admirer," playing the beautiful but shallow Deborah Ann Fimple. Over the years, she appeared in more than 60 television and film productions, including "Twins" (1988) with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, "Jerry Maguire" (1996) with Tom Cruise, and "For Love of the Game" (1999) with Kevin Costner.

In 1991, Kelly Preston married actor John Travolta, and the couple collaborated on several projects, including the comedy film "The Experts" (1989) and the biographical film "Gotti" (2018).

They had three children together: Ella Bleu Travolta, Jett Travolta, and Benjamin Travolta. Tragically, Jett passed away in 2009 from a seizure related to Kawasaki syndrome.

Kelly Preston passed away on July 12, 2020, at the age of 57 after a two-year battle with breast cancer.