EXCLUSIVE: The Very Tortured Life of John Travolta's 'New Love' Revealed — Including Her Agoraphobia and Infamous Romps With One of Hollywood's Wildest Stars

John Travolta is edging back toward romance after years of grief, and friends tell RadarOnline.com the star quietly capturing his attention is his old Hollywood ally Kim Basinger, a woman whose life has swung between red-carpet acclaim and deeply private battles.

Travolta, 71, who rose to fame in Grease, Saturday Night Fever, and Pulp Fiction, has lived through profound personal loss – his son Jett died at 16 in 2009, and his wife of 19 years, actress Kelly Preston, died in 2020 after breast cancer.

The actor has largely withdrawn from the dating world while raising his younger children, Ella Bleu, 25, and Benjamin, 14, calling their healing a "personal and private journey."

But now, nearly six years after Preston's death, sources claim Travolta has "fallen for" Basinger, also 71, whom he first worked alongside at the NATO theater awards in 1983 before appearing with her at the Golden Globes in 1999 and later co-starring with her in A Love Song for Bobby Long in 2004.

Basinger's own path has been far from serene. In 2022, she admitted she had battled severe agoraphobia for years, which is defined as an anxiety disorder that involves fearing and avoiding places or situations that might cause panic and feelings of being trapped, according to the Mayo Clinic.

"I wouldn't leave the house, I wouldn't go to dinner…," she said of the debilitating condition.

She added: "I had to relearn to drive," explaining, "everything used to make me nervous."

Basinger added: "Everything used to make me nervous, like the glass sliding to open the door, or, 'Where do I step to open the door?' Everything became a big job to figure out how to do it. You live with a dry mouth all the time, you're very shaky, you're just so exhausted all the time."

The condition left her housebound for months at a time and was a huge change from the sexpot persona she developed in the 1980s, thanks to roles in 9½ Weeks alongside Hollywood wildman Mickey Rourke as a dominant businessman.

Her highly publicized divorce from Alec Baldwin in 2002 followed a brutal custody battle over their daughter, Ireland, now 30, during which a leaked voicemail from Baldwin referring to their child as a "rude, thoughtless little pig" made global headlines.

Earlier this year, Basinger said she and Baldwin now have a "great relationship" and insisted, "I have great respect for where he is today, and his family."

Following years of rumored romances, including dating Prince in the late 1980s, Basinger largely stepped back from dating until meeting hairstylist Mitch Stone in 2014.