The “Dirty Dancing” Star and His Wife Lisa Were Together for 33 Years, and She Continues to Love Him Even Though She Remarried

It is no secret that the Dirty Dancing star, Patrick Swayze, was adored by many women, but he had eyes for only one — Lisa Niemi. This doesn’t mean their relationship was always perfect. They faced tough times too but proved that when something is from the heart, it has the power to make love last long after “till death do us part.”

They met each other for the first time in a dance studio.

No, we’re not just explaining the plot of the Dirty Dancing movie. This was actually how the couple met. When Niemi was 15 years old, she started taking dance lessons at the Houston Ballet Dance Company. The studio was run by Swayze’s mother, and that’s how they were introduced.

Even though they met quite early in life (Swayze was just 19 years old), they could still feel the connection between each other. Niemi recalled what it was like when she danced with him for the first time, saying, “I looked in his eyes, it was like everything came alive.”

Swayze also liked her, and they went on a few dates, but his “Casanova” moves to win her over didn’t work on Niemi. “She didn’t buy any of my nonsense. We spent half our dates in total silence, as she wouldn’t talk to me if she thought I was putting on an act,” Swayze revealed.

What helped him win her over was a truly meaningful conversation with her. Swayze also revealed how he felt about her at the time, explaining, “I knew she was the smartest chick I’d ever met in my life. And for a long time, I didn’t feel like I deserved her.”

They wed in 1975 and stayed together for 34 years.

After their wedding, they moved to New York to chase their dreams. Even though it wasn’t a smooth journey — Niemi wrote in an Instagram post that back then all they could afford to carry when going out was 25¢ in case they needed to make an emergency phone call — they still managed to succeed in the end when Swayze had his breakthrough role in Dirty Dancing.

His wife stuck by his side, and she was actually the inspiration for the song, “She’s Like the Wind,” from the iconic dancing scene in the movie. “I just felt at that time that I’m very, very lucky to have a woman who thinks I hung the moon,” he revealed.

In one interview in 1988, when Patrick was asked to say something about his wife, he said, “She literally is my creative partner. It just feels like there’s a real power between us. That there’s real chemistry — like we are soulmates. Like we knew each other before and came together in another life. There’s just some intense passion because our fights are huge, but I love that they’re huge.”

Life served them a few setbacks, but their love helped them rise above the hardships.

In 1982, the sudden death of Swayze’s father caught him off guard. This was terribly difficult for him, and it wasn’t something he could just accept. He loved his father deeply and he was one of the most important men in his life, and he made the decision to spend his time on this Earth making his dad proud.

Sadly, for many years, he didn’t cope well with his father’s death. “He was the rock our family was built on,” wrote Swayze in his biography. “A steady and stable presence in our lives. In some ways, we were nurtured more by my father than by my mother.”

Losing his father wasn’t the only thing that took a toll on him and their relationship. Swayze and Niemi wanted to become parents, but their wish never came true.

In 1990, Niemi suffered a miscarriage, and this was really tragic for them. “I’d been so excited that day, so thrilled at going to see my baby’s heartbeat, and he was dead,” he said in his autobiography. “I couldn’t handle it. When we got to the parking lot, [Niemi] and I both wept bitterly, holding each other tight.”

Swayze’s depression was something that he couldn’t get rid of. At one point, his career started to dwindle, and his little sister’s sudden death in 1994 was what finally made him hit rock bottom. Despite their huge love for each other, all these tragic events left their mark, and in 2004, the couple briefly separated.

A career break and the purchase of a remote ranch helped the couple to renew their relationship.

Swayze spent his time raising horses — something he wanted to do with his father — and he finally felt happiness. Thankfully, the couple’s marriage was also getting back to normal. “We’re a team,” Swayze revealed. “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.”

However, his happy moments came with an expiration date, and in 2008, right after he decided to return to acting, he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. This illness usually claims most victims in months, but Swayze beat the odds. He refused to surrender to the disease, and he filmed 13 episodes of the TV show, The Beast.

In one interview, he revealed that he wanted to keep fighting until they find a cure, but sadly, he passed away after a 22-month battle, which was a miracle on its own.

His wife stayed by his side until his last breath.

Niemi spent Swayze’s final days alone with him, holding his hand, listening to music, sleeping with her arm around him, her head on his shoulder, wordlessly. Her last words to him were “I love you,” and those were his last words to Niemi too.

She still talks to him and pays tribute to him every chance she gets.

“When you lose someone, you never stop loving them, and it’s — I feel like I have a different relationship with him now,” Niemi revealed. “But he’s still in my life, and he’s still in my heart, and he’s with me every day.”

To honor Swayze’s legacy, Niemi became a member of PanCAN — an organization dedicated to fighting pancreatic cancer. “It gave me purpose... Just because he was gone doesn’t mean the fight is over, and I was going to continue that for him.”

To this day, on Swayze’s birthday, their wedding anniversary, and the anniversary of his death, Niemi does something to honor him. Going on horseback rides that he would’ve loved or ordering mini deserts to try them all are some of the few things she does to remember him.

In one Instagram post, Niemi wrote: “Remembering a wonderful man today, and what would have been our forty-fourth anniversary. Used to be these events that laid me out for weeks. But this afternoon I’m feeling melancholy, but full of love and celebration for what we had and what still lies in our hearts. Love doesn’t die. He still makes me smile.”

In 2014, Niemi remarried, but her heart still belongs to Swayze.

Niemi revealed that accepting Albert DePrisco’s proposal was a “leap of faith,” which was not an easy decision to make. “Albert knew I still loved Patrick and would always love him, and told me, ’And I know you love me, and I love you.’ How could I not marry this man? As I had time to process the change my life was going to take, my doubts became less and less, and I became more and more sure,” she revealed.

Before the wedding, Niemi had a dream about Swayze, which she took as a sign. “It was like he was giving me his blessing and letting me know it was okay. Again, it can be hard sometimes to take those steps forward, but it doesn’t change the way we feel about someone. He was letting me know that.”

Have you ever witnessed or experienced love as big as Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi’s?