Of all the terrible ways to start a new year, losing your 16-year-old son on New Year’s Day has to rank among the worst.

So there can’t be a person on the planet who’d want to trade places with John Travolta at the moment. As you’ve probably already heard, John Travolta’s 16-year-old son Jett died at some point between January 1 and 2 from a seizure brought on by his Kawasaki syndrome.

And now John Travolta has released a statement about Jett’s death, thanking the public for its support and describing how ‘heartbroken’ he and his wife are. Horrible news.

The investigation into the death of John Travolta’s son Jett in the Bahamas on Friday, while profoundly sad, seems like it might drag on for a while. Jett Travolta, who suffered from the rare heart condition Kawasaki syndrome, died after apparently having a seizure in a bathroom and hitting his head.

Now, however, it has emerged that John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston are to be questioned by police after suggestions that Jett’s body was left unnoticed for up to 10 hours, alongside rumours that the Travoltas didn’t give Jett medication for his condition because it went against the tenants of Scientology. John Travolta, for what it’s worth, denies these claims.

In the meantime, though, John Travolta has broken his silence over Jett’s death with a statement released on his website:

We would like to extend our deepest and most heartfelt thanks to everyone who has sent their love and condolences. Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for, and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered. We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives.

The Bahamas, a teenager’s death, a drawn-out investigation, suggestions of the misuse of medication – the whole thing has horrible shades of the death of Anna Nicole Smith’s son in 2006. Hopefully, though, Jett Travolta’s death won’t become the same gruesome pantomime that Daniel’s did.

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