Patrick Swayze’s wife, Lisa Niemi Swayze, is facing some pretty harsh allegations concerning her supposed abuse of her late husband, but there’s much more to know about Lisa and her life with Patrick.
She was a teen when they started dating
The two met at Houston Ballet Dance Company, which Swayze’s parents owned and directed, when Lisa started studying there in the early ’70s. They commenced dating soon after when Lisa was just 15 years old and Patrick was 19, according to People magazine.
They stayed together until the end
Niemi and Swayze were wed on June 12, 1975, and stayed married until his death on Sept. 14, 2009.
“We’re a team,” Swayze said in 2007, according to People. “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. We’re big believers in, arguments are OK as long as it’s not about your ego, but it’s about a mutual goal — trying to create something special.”
She stood by him through his cancer struggle
Sources are coming out of the woodwork to bash Lisa now, but Patrick’s younger brother, Don, claimed that she was Patrick’s rock at the end of his life when he was battling pancreatic cancer.
“You can see Lisa put her husband before herself and fight back emotion,” Don said in 2008, via People. “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.”
She still supports pancreatic cancer causes
Lisa remains active with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and advocates on the internet with the #PurpleForAPurpose hashtag.
They bonded over horses
Patrick had horses and cattle all of his life and credited horseback riding for helping him stay in shape once his dancing career was over. The couple continued their love of riding and raising horses during their marriage, and to this day, Lisa is still fond of her four-legged friends.
They never had any children
Lisa had a miscarriage in 1990, and she and Patrick never had any children together.
“We just missed our window; we got so focused on our world and our careers that we missed the boat,” Patrick said to People in 2007.
Lisa is a writer, director and actor
She wrote, directed and starred alongside Swayze in 2003’s One Last Dance, which was 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 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.”
She’s a licensed pilot
Lisa is a licensed pilot, and even flew Patrick to many of his treatments during his cancer battle.
She loves animals
The couple moved to a five-acre ranch in 1985, where they lived with a host of animals including their horses, dogs, cats and cattle.
She’s a ‘New York Times’ best-selling author
In 2012, Lisa released Worth Fighting For: Love, Loss, and Moving Forward, which touched many and quickly rose to the top of the best-seller lists.
She and Patrick also penned The Time of My Life together toward the end of his life, and it was published in 2009.
She’s royalty
Kind of.
On July 16, 2011, at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles, she was honored with the title of Dame, and invested in the Royal Order of Francis I, according to her official website.
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