It’s been five years since Vanessa Hudgens lost her father Greg to cancer. To mark the somber occasion, the 32-year-old entertainer shared a clip of her big number “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” in Grease: Live!, reminding the world of her act of resilience. You may recall that Greg passed away the night before the FOX extravaganza went live. “I am so sad to say that last night my daddy, Greg passed away from stage 4 cancer,” Vanessa tweeted the following morning. “Thank you to everyone who kept him in your prayers.”
Before anyone could speculate as to whether she would perform as Rizzo that night, she sent out another tweet. “Tonight, I do the show in his honor,” Vanessa added. And that she did.
The High School Musical alum proved that the show must always go on, delivering a powerful performance in the live television event a mere hours after announcing her papa’s death. The world was in awe of her strength as social media lit ablaze with condolences.
After the emotional weekend, Vanessa took to Twitter once again to thank everyone for their support. “I can’t believe @gogrease is OVER! Grand opening and grand closing,” she wrote. “Thank you to everyone who watched & supported me last night. Doing #greaselive was one of the most incredible experiences and I’m so glad you guys liked it as much as I did… Till next time Rizz... #pinkladyforlife.”
For the five year anniversary, Vanessa’s sister Stella put out a direct tribute to their dad on Instagram Stories. “5 years today,” she wrote over an old family photo, “Miss u dad.”