Lisa Niemi might not be a household name, but you undoubtedly know her who her husband was. His films had a way of making us all weak in the knees, I mean Dirty Dancing and Ghost were the epitome of an all-consuming love. That’s right, Lisa was married to the dreamy Patrick Swayze. Their romance was straight out of a fairytale and when he passed from pancreatic cancer in 2009, our hearts broke for the couple. After 34 beautiful and agonizing years together, Lisa Niemi has recently revealed her one regret when it comes to her marriage to Swayze. Tissues at the ready, people, this story is one that’ll have you screaming and sobbing minute to minute.
How They Met
We can’t very well begin this story without telling you how it all started. The year was 1970, Patrick Swayze was 18 and Lisa Niemi was 14. Niemi was taking dancing lessons from Swayze’s mother when they first met. Unfortunately, Lisa ended up slapping Patrick when they met as he pinched her bottom and she was having none of his games. Swayze recalled the day perfectly, “Lisa was different from the girls I was used to. If I started putting on a pose or doing my Casanova routine, Lisa would turn away and not say anything.”
How They Met
Warming Up
However after a few dates and getting to know one another, Lisa began to warm up to Patrick. “We had a lot of dates in silence. But as soon as I opened up about what I wanted from life, she would answer me. She was the smartest woman I ever met and I found that incredibly attractive,” recalled Swayze. The Outsiders actor always said that their relationship was more romantic than any of his roles. Always he said that “she was the most beautiful woman he ever saw, his best friend, and a better dancer than he.”
Warming Up
New York
Shortly after meeting Lisa, Patrick Swayze moved to the Big Apple in order to become a ballet dancer. When Lisa then came to New York, she moved in with him! However their romance remained unconsummated for a year. “I had to propose before we felt our relationship was serious enough to have sex with each other,” he said.
New York
Two Halves
On June 12, 1975, Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi exchanged vows. Anyone who knew them said that they were two halves of the same whole. Swayze’s co-star from the 1989 movie Road House, Kelly Lynch, said this of their relationship, “Like any great marriage, they seem to move together as one person.”
Two Halves
A Tribute
Shortly before his death, Swayze paid a beautiful tribute to his wife. “I have no greater respect for any other human being on this earth like I have for her. Part of me says I couldn’t have made it through without her, but, of course, the other part of me says I could have, but not nearly as elegantly as I have.”
A Tribute
Professionalism
Thanks to his role as the dance instructor Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing back in 1987, Swayze’s fame skyrocketed. His status as a leading man in Hollywood was further cemented when he starred alongside Demi Moore in Ghost. While on set, everyone always praised his professionalism however in the real world, he had a few problems. Swayze felt his life was “incredibly alienating”, there were times he needed a bodyguard just to be able to go grocery shopping. And who could forget all the terrible rumors? (Such as his fling with some blonde stripper).
Professionalism
Like A King
All of the flattery that flooded in by millions of fans caused some problems for the couple as well. Swayze revealed that getting named the world’s sexiest man made him feel like “king for a day”. However he knew he needed Lisa in order to help keep his feet on the ground. Lisa even received a lot of death threats from Patrick’s fans.
Like A King
Dirty Dancing
Despite all the attention, Patrick Swayze only had eyes for his wife. In fact, it was his love for Lisa that inspired him to write the hit ballad “She’s Like The Wind” – yes, the same song that featured as Dirty Dancing’s hit single. “I just felt at that time that I’m very, very lucky to have a woman who thinks I hung the moon,” he told PEOPLE magazine in 2007. While they didn’t appear together onscreen, Patrick did practice all of his dance routines for the film with his wife.
Dirty Dancing
Tragedy
Unfortunately, the couple suffered a few personal tragedies. In 1990 and 2005, Lisa suffered miscarriages and the couple were understandably deeply devastated. Throughout their marriage, they were not able to have children and Swayze said that was a lifelong regret.
Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi
A Problem
During the 90’s, Swayze drank heavily. In fact, his drinking lasted many years and nearly ruined his marriage. In 2003, the duo even separated for a year because of his drinking problem. That’s how serious his addiction was. However Lisa and Patrick were able to overcome this bump in the road. Once Swayze was released from rehab, the couple reunited.
A Problem
No Matter What
No matter whats ups and downs they faced, whether it was from the fame or personal struggles, their marriage was always the real thing. “A relationship survives because of keeping the friendship alive and learning how to fall in love over and over again and never taking the other person for granted and seeing things in a new light with new eyes,” Patrick said. “We’re big believers in, arguments are okay as long as it’s not about your ego, but it’s about a mutual goal – trying to create something special.”
No Matter What
On Fire
In 1994, during the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo, this beautiful pair showed their onstage chemistry. They performed a romantic dance number to an instrumental version of Whitney Houston’s hit song “All the Man That I Need.” In his 2009 biography Patrick Swayze: One Last Dance, he very cutely said, “It was a very special experience for me for the world to see what an absolutely beautiful miracle angel she is.”
On Fire
A True Soldier
Lisa often visited the set of The Beast, at the time, Patrick was already battling pancreatic cancer but he still continued to work as though nothing was amiss. “He was fantastic. He had challenges because he was still doing chemo and it wasn’t always easy, but he’d suit up and show up. He was always there,” Lisa Niemi told PEOPLE magazine.
A True Soldier
My Partner
It wasn’t just her beauty that Patrick loved, but also her sense of honesty. “She was different than anyone I’d known. Like a flower. If I started my macho stuff, she’d cut me off fast,” Patrick told PEOPLE magazine back in 1984. “I’d be dead without her. She helped me break my self-destructive tendencies. I was an insecure little baby. I don’t ever see us apart. She’s my creative partner.”
My Partner
Extraordinary
“The way he looked at her, the way he held on to her, the way she smiled, I can’t really imagine one without the other,” Barbara Walters said when she spent time with Patrick and Lisa in December 2008. Walters was there filming a TV special titled Patrick Swayze: The Truth. “That marriage is extraordinary.” Isn’t that what we all want? (That’s a rhetorical question!)
Extraordinary
His Rock
Don, Patrick’s younger brother, has recently claimed that Lisa was always Patrick’s rock during the last year of his life while he battled pancreatic cancer.”You can see Lisa put her husband before herself and fight back emotion,” Don told PEOPLE in 2008. “It’s very admirable, but you know she’s got things going on inside that she’s not expressing because she’s staying strong and positive for my brother… He looks into her eyes and he sees nothing except, ‘Everything is going to be OK.’ No matter what he’s going through, it’s OK. She’s just there.”
His Rock
Wearing Many Hats
Lisa Niemi was more than just Patrick Swayze’s wife and a dancer. She is also a writer and director. Niemi actually wrote, directed and starred alongside her husband in the 2003 film One Last Dance and this was even based on their play Without a Word. “It was basically based on our experiences as concert dancers in New York, and it affected people a lot,” Lisa told TV Guide back in 2005. “For a long time we didn’t know how to adapt it [to film]. Finally we realized that if you’re going to talk about the dance world and the heart and soul of a dancer, you really needed to have lived it. It was really important to us that this film [came across as] authentic. And at the same time, we tell an intimate story about healing a past hurt so that you can be as alive as you can.”
Wearing Many Hats
Her Regret
After Patrick passed away from his battle with pancreatic cancer, a few months went by when Lisa finally gave a talk in California. Lisa opened up about her crippling grief in front of 14,000 women, women who were there to hear her speak. She revealed what her biggest regret was from her marriage to Patrick Swayze. “My regret is that I didn’t tell him that I loved him enough over that entire 34 years” Niemi confessed.
Her Regret
It Wasn’t Enough
Her confession is heartbreaking but just goes to show how much she really loved him. “We told each other we loved each other over and over again,” Lisa said during an interview with The Times. “I never left the room without telling him. It still didn’t feel like enough.”
It Wasn’t Enough
Perfect
When it comes to their marriage, Lisa cherishes every memory. “No relationship is perfect, you hang in there and you don’t give up. And of course you are going to have bad times. I would be with Patrick a million times over if I could — warts and all.”
