LOS ANGELES — Lisa Niemi, Patrick Swayze's longtime love and widow, is unapologetic about finding love again.
On the latest episode of the Amy and T.J. podcast, the 67-year-old former professional dancer talks about the next chapter in her life following the death of the Dirty Dancing star in 2009.
Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and battled the disease for 22 months before he died in 2009 at the age of 57. Niemi and Swayze were married from 1975 until he passed away. Three years after his death, Niemi met her now-husband, Albert DePrisco.
"I didn't realize just how lonely I was until much, much later," Niemi told Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes about life after Swayze's death. "I'm a buck up kinda girl. I can take it. This is not loneliness I'm feeling, I'm dealing with grief. It was so wonderful when [Albert] came in my life."
Niemi was introduced to her husband through mutual friends years after the death of Swayze and while DePrisco was getting over a divorce. She told Holmes and Robach that the love she has for her current spouse does not take away from the love she still has for Swayze.
"I really fell in love with Albert," she shared. "It was interesting to see how it didn't affect my love for Patrick one bit."
When asked what was her reaction when DePrisco proposed, Niemi admitted that it was simply, "Oh s--t," because she couldn't imagine remarrying. After seeing Swayze in a dream, Niemi said that's when she felt comfortable with the idea of getting married again.
For Niemi, the dream was like Swayze's resurrection and it was then he gave her his seal of approval.
"He came up to me and he put his arms around me," she recalled. "And I was like, 'I can't marry Albert now because you're back.' and he just looked at me. What his words that came to me were, 'I know you love me.' It was like he was letting me know that it didn't change how we felt about each other in our relationship with each other. It was like giving a blessing."
The vivid dream about the Road House star "sure didn't hurt" when it came to deciding if she would once again say "I do."
Even though Niemi felt she had the blessing of her late spouse, there was a world of criticism that came with her new marriage. While she understood it at first, Niemi isn't allowing critics to stand in the way of her second act.
"There's a lot of flack that came with that, a lot of criticism but you learn to deal with it and move on," she told Holmes and Robach. "I'm so tempted to tell them, 'Hey girlfriend, stand in my shoes and tell me about it. Go ahead, tell me just because I lost my husband that I don't love him anymore.' It's ridiculous."
In 2022, ahead of Dirty Dancing's 35th anniversary, ET spoke with Niemi about what she misses most about Swayze, and how she is keeps him with her daily.
"I don't think there's anything I don't miss about him," she said. "... He's got such a zest for life and this and that, but it's all the little things that are left. It's the sound of his voice, how he smells, all the things that put him in the room with you that are physical."
She continued, "It's very strange for me, because he's been gone 13 years now. It's strange. That’s quite a bit of time, and it's very strange to have someone so far away and yet have them still so incredibly close in your heart. I feel like he's with me every day, but of course it'd be nice to have him physically in the room. But, I tell you what, we had a great ride and there’s so much to be grateful for."
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