Patrick Swayze’s Wife Lisa Niemi Was His Soulmate: Meet the Late Actor’s Longtime Love

Patrick Swayze fans always rooted for his marriage to his longtime love, Lisa Niemi. The pair were married up until his death in 2009.

When Did Patrick Swayze Marry Lisa Niemi?

The couple tied the knot in 1975, this after meeting when they were both teenagers.

"The first time I met Patrick I was involved in the children’s music group in Houston, Texas and they had joined forces with his mom’s dance school and company," Lisa said in the documentary I Am Patrick Swayze. "I walked by the door, and looked in at the dance classes and she said 'come on in!' I said well I don’t really have the money to pay, and she goes 'That doesn’t matter!' And actually for a full year she taught me free of charge."

"He had a reputation of being this Casanova, this egotistical guy and I was like so quiet you could almost make up anything about me," Lisa added. "There was definitely a spark, and something was happening and the first time [Patrick] Buddy and I danced together was at a school exhibition. We walked out on stage, you kind of do your classic intro, where you kind of gesture to each other, and it was almost like the whole stage filled with light. Even though it’s just like school auditorium lights. But it was almost like we were lit."

"We had been living together for about a year, and we were in a tickling fight on our loofa couch, and when he stopped he said 'let’s do it.' Do what? He said 'let’s get married,'" Lisa recalled. "I was just absolutely in terror but Patrick was pretty good at getting his way about things, he could chime a bird out of a tree, he certainly never gives up. And we ended up getting married a month later. It was a big risk, because we were both so young — we had some bumps along the way but we were definitely stronger together. That became very clear very quickly."

From a one bedroom apartment, to a massive property — that's exactly what the happy couple did as the years went on. "Both of us were Texans so it was always our dream to have a ranch," the Once Last Dance star said. "It was just a dry piece of dirt, some rusted auto parts, tumble weeds actually blowing through. As he did more movies and we made more money, we turned it into our private little paradise. We were able to have our horses there. He was proud that we were more real and that we didn’t live in Beverly Hills. He said we chose to live on a ranch rather than with monkeys in a cage!"

Patrick Swayze Died Following an Intense Cancer Battle

Patrick and Lisa remained married until Patrick died at age 57 from pancreatic cancer in September 2009. She recalled learning of his cancer diagnosis and his reaction to the heartbreaking news.

“When he first found out he had pancreatic cancer he turned to me and said, ‘I’m a dead man,'” Lisa shared during an appearance on the “Amy and T.J. Podcast” in April 2024. “I didn’t know much about pancreatic cancer, but he did, and from what he knew, anytime you heard someone had had pancreatic cancer, it was like, ‘Well, he’s out of here.'"

They did not welcome any children during their marriage.

Lisa Niemi Remarried After Patrick's Death

Five years after her first husband's death, Lisa remarried jeweler Albert DePrisco. She opened up about her decision to take a "leap of faith" and walk down the aisle again.

"I found myself grappling with my feelings of having been married to Patrick for 34 years! Privately, I flipped, I flopped. Yes, get married, no, don't get married," Lisa told People of her May 2014 nuptials.

"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 added.