I got ‘a lot of flak’ for marrying after his death

Nobody puts baby in a corner. 

Patrick Swayze’s widow, actress-dancer Lisa Niemi Swayze, 67, appeared on the April 8 episode of the “Amy and T.J.” podcast to reflect on her relationship with the late actor, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2009 at age 57. 

The couple met when Lisa was 15 and Patrick was 19, at his mother’s ballet school in Houston, Texas. They were married from 1975 until his death. 

Lisa, who married her second husband, Albert DePrisco, in 2014, said that some fans reacted in a hostile way.

“I got a lot of flak — it’s like, ‘How dare you.’ There are some pretty rabid Patrick fans out there who think I’m evil, just don’t like me because I was married to him,” she shared on the podcast.

“So there was a lot of flak that came on that, a lot of criticism, and you just learn to deal with it and move on. But it’s like — I was so tempted so many times to say, ‘Hey girlfriend, stand in my shoes, tell me about it. Go ahead — tell me just because I lost my husband that I don’t love him anymore.’ “

“How could you say that?” she added. “Ridiculous.” 

Lisa met the “Dirty Dancing” star when they were teens. 

She reflected, “My first dance teacher was his mom, that’s how we met. He was my first dance partner. We looked in each others’ eyes and it was like . . . bang. This incredible magic happened. . . We pretty much stayed dance partners for the next 34 years.”

She said that their relationship wasn’t all sunshine and roses at the beginning.

“It was really interesting because we had a little contentious start . . . He had kind of a reputation as a Casanova . . . We were supposed to stay away from each other,” she revealed.

“I knew before we were done [with the dance] that something was going to happen between us that was significant. I didn’t know it would culminate in a very long-term marriage, I was only like 16 at the time,” she added. 

Lisa shared that the “Ghost” and “Road House” actor wasn’t a “womanizer,” despite having a “significant amount of girlfriends” before her. She called him “very gentlemanly.” 

“He was so all-American handsome, talented at everything, it just kind of made you sick,” she said, laughing. 

“And a lot of people didn’t like him because of that. He was too perfect.” 

The couple danced in private, but Lisa revealed, “He would never dance with me out in public, because everyone would be sitting around going, ‘What’s he going to do next?’ ”

Tragically, after he got his cancer diagnosis in July 2008, she shared that, “He turned to me and said, ‘I’m a dead man.’ 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.’ Sure enough, the doctor said you can go ahead and treat it and be as aggressive as you want, but do think about getting your affairs in order sooner rather than later. That’s a tough thing to hear,” she told the “Amy and T.J.” podcast.

Lisa said after that, they tried to treat his cancer and stay positive. 

“Your life turns on a dime . . . Everything shifted,” she said. 

“We always called ourselves optimistic realists, because we knew in all likelihood how this was gonna turn out, but we held out that he would be the one to make it through it, because miracles do happen. We kept so positive about everything, but I tell you what, it was like living in a complete nightmare 24/7.”

Lisa said that she met her current husband, who is divorced from his first wife, “about three years” after Patrick’s death. 

“If we had met before then, it wouldn’t have happened, but after three years, we were about ready,” she said. “We were introduced by longtime friends that we had both known for 30 years who vouched for the other person.”

She added,  “Patrick is still with me. I still have a relationship with him; he’s physically not here, [but] every day he’s with me, and I feel him there.

“What was really unusual was . . . I really fell in love with Albert [DePrisco], and it didn’t affect — it was interesting to see how it didn’t affect my love for Patrick one bit.”