Patrick Swayze tragically passed away in 2009 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
With him until the very end was Patrick’s widow Lisa Niemi, who has often reflected on her 34-year marriage to the actor and dancer.
Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi first met when they were teenagers. The pair were both dancers, with Patrick being the son of the owner and director of the dance studio they attended, Houston Ballet Dance Company.
Five years later, Lisa and the Dirty Dancing star were married on 12 June 1975. The couple moved to New York City shortly after they tied the knot, where they both pursued their dance careers until the late 1970s.
Later, they moved to Los Angeles where Patrick’s career as an actor really took off, and the pair remained together until Patrick’s death in September 2009.
Speaking about her marriage to the Road House actor in 2023, Lisa told the Today Show: “Just because somebody’s gone doesn’t end your relationship with them, We spent 34 years together, and that’s always going to be a part of my life and who I am.”
“I still care and I know how tough Patrick’s and my journey was with this,” the 67-year-old added. “Cancer may have taken him, but it didn’t beat him. And I’m continuing his fight for him.”
While she’s opened up about her loving marriage to Patrick, Lisa has also experienced some undeserved backlash and criticism about getting remarried to her current partner, Albert DePrisco, in 2014.
“Yes, I got a lot of flack — it’s like, ‘How dare you.’ There are some pretty rabid Patrick fans out there who think I’m evil, just don’t like me because I was married to him,” she said on the Amy and T.J. podcast.
“So there was a lot of flack that came on that, a lot of criticism, and you just learn to deal with it and move on. But it’s like — I was so tempted so many times to say, ‘Hey girlfriend, stand in my shoes, tell me about it. Go ahead — tell me just because I lost my husband that I don’t love him anymore.’ “
Lisa met Albert, a jeweller, “about three years after” Patrick’s death.
“If we had met before then, it wouldn’t have happened, but after three years we were about ready,” she told the podcast. “We were introduced by longtime friends that we had both known for 30 years who vouched for the other person.”
Even more than a decade following his passing, Lisa continues to speak about her ongoing connection with her late husband.
“Patrick is still with me. I still have a relationship with him; he’s physically not here, [but] every day he’s with me and I feel him there,” she said. “What was really unusual was … I really fell in love with Albert, and it didn’t affect — it was interesting to see how it didn’t affect my love for Patrick one bit.”
“Just because you lose a loved one doesn’t mean you stop loving, and you don’t have that love to give.
“And I think Albert and I were fortunate to find someone to give that love to.”
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