Swayze's Widow: His Drinking Made Me Leave Him For A Year

people.com:

Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi, whose marriage began in their 20s and lasted for 34 years, led one of Hollywood's storied love affairs -- but the Dirty Dancing actor's widow reveals that there were times when their union teetered to the brink of breakup.

Read the whole story: people.com

Comments

[tploomis]

12:57 AM on 10/31/2009

It was kind of obvious he was drinking heavily, wasn't it? He came down with pancreatic cancer, after all.

[smileatfear]

01:40 AM on 10/31/2009

My neighbor's father just died of pancreatic cancer. He was mormon and had never touched a drop of liquor in his life. Having pancreatic cancer doesn't equal heavy drinker. And most heavy drinkers never develop pancreatic cancer.

[tploomis]

03:18 AM on 10/31/2009

There is a correlation between heavy alcohol use and pancreatic cancer.
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/reprint/55/21/4899

[richard5]

09:58 AM on 10/31/2009

How do u know for certain that "he never touched a drop of liquor in his life'? I can tell you from experience that people would say one thing in public and do another in private. At any rate, not everyone who abuse alcohol will be afflicted with pancreatic cancer as alchohol is only one risk risk factor for pancreatic cancer. The bottom line that people should be aware of is this: it can along with a host of other cancers and medical illnesses.
-----------------
Alcohol is one of the most dangeour legal drugs in this country. Unfortunately, prohibition did not work and will never work in a country such as ours. The horse is already out the barn.

[tlgeiger62]

09:22 AM on 10/31/2009

Yeah I just looked it up and you may have a point. I'm not that familiar with Swayze in terms of his drinking. While they mention that she left him for a year, it's not clear, to me anyway, if drinking was a life-long problem for him. I can't say I ever heard anything like that.

[richard5]

12:28 AM on 10/31/2009

There is a link between chronic alcohol consumpton (especially hard liquor) and pancreatic cancer. Alcohol inflames the pancreas leading to pancreatitits. It can cause also cause pancreatic cells to multiply uncontrollable in an attempt to repair the damage.

It's one of the dangers of drinking too much. I don't know Patrick's drinking history, but if he was drinking heavily at any point in his life, his development of pancretic cancer could be related to prior alcohol abuse.

I hope that at least this message gets out to those of us who hit the bottle for whatever reason. Please try to stop if you can, or get help. At anyrate, may Patrick RIP. He was one of my all time favorite actors. His role in Ghost was was the first time he got my attention, and I luv his acting every since.

[shuffleoff]

12:21 AM on 10/31/2009

Perhaps she wanted to get the truth out in her own words before it was reported incorrectly, which was bound to happen...only a matter of time before it hit the newstands big time.

[buckeyedave]

10:01 PM on 10/30/2009

Apparently Rest In Peace no longer applies.

[GrizzlyBowman]

08:28 PM on 10/30/2009

Maybe he wasn't drinking enough for her?

[csoloveshp]

08:19 PM on 10/30/2009

Why all the judgments about why she is talking about it? That is up to her and she can handle this however she wants. I didn't think anything of it. He had a drinking problem. It caused problems in their relationship. They overcame their issues. It is not dirty laundry. It is life and life is not always neat and pretty. So what. There was obviously much more than that to their lives and their 34 year marriage.

[LemonMeringue]

07:50 PM on 10/30/2009

Swayze revealed this in his just-published memoirs. Still why is she talking about this now?

[Feanor]

05:58 PM on 11/01/2009

For money, obviously. I'm sure she got paid for her Oprah appearance.

[jetbanana]

06:26 PM on 10/30/2009

I think she should have kept this private. Is anything sacred these days?

[Erdgeist]

05:17 PM on 10/30/2009

If it is any consolation, this might help. My wife's sister's son recently died in a motorcycle accident in China of all places. He was drunk at the time. And yes, he was an alcoholic. But now he speaks to his mom from the other-side. He told his mom not to worry. He said the place where he is now is beautiful beyond words. But he told his mom to look to the light (spiritual of course). He said where he is the light of bliss is everywhere.

Yes, Patrick is there I bet--he is in that world where the light of bliss is.

[minnehot]

05:02 PM on 10/30/2009

What a lovely woman!

As a drunk myself (haven't used in 26 yr) I know Lisa made the right choice in leaving Patrick when he went off the deep end. Her refusal to put up with it is an essential component (not the entire motivation) for a user to come face to face with his/her addiction.

This was probably one of the the hardest things Lisa had to do in her life - but it was the healthy decision for her and the right decision for Patrick.

Whether Lisa knows it our not, she helped to bring him back by leaving him, for those final years of love and sobriety.

Patrick was one lucky guy.

[ColoradoDan]

04:13 PM on 10/30/2009

Never really know celebrities but both seemed like sane good folks who understood love and honesty.

Touching article.

[joelaf]

04:01 PM on 10/30/2009

Mixed emotions on this one. As a widower, I don't air any dirty laundry about my relationship with my late wife. Perhaps his drinking was because at some primal level, he knew he was dying. Just my $ .02.

[cyoohoos]

04:20 PM on 10/30/2009

Thanks for sharing.

[papa1893]

07:31 PM on 10/30/2009

Patrick already came out with his drinking problems in an article in People mag. She should honor his passing and keep his and hers marriage problems private. It does not need to be known what goes on in a marriage after one spouse passes away. Not negative about her just my opinion.