The widow of Patrick Swayze is opening up about the difficulty of life after he received a pancreatic cancer diagnosis in January 2008. During an appearance on an episode of the Amy and T.J. Podcast, the 67-year-old dancer shared her late husband’s initial reaction to hearing his diagnosis.
“When he first found out he had pancreatic cancer he turned to me and said, 'I’m a dead man,'” she shared during the podcast. “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.’"
She continued on to explain that the doctors were able to confirm his diagnosis after Patrick had an endoscopic procedure. The medical professionals then informed Lisa of the diagnosis — and she had to weigh when would be the right time to break the news to him.
At the time, Patrick was still “pretty knocked out,” and Lisa expressed that she didn’t want to “tell him when he was woozy.” So instead she waited, but when she woke from a nap in the hospital room a few hours later, she saw the doctor sitting across from Patrick. “I knew the doctor had just told him.”
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“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," Lisa continued. "That’s a tough thing to hear.”
The couple had a long road ahead of them, but remained optimistic to get Patrick treatment that would hopefully improve his condition. Lisa shared that "every ounce of energy we had was gonna go into helping him live.” She first called her sister-in-law, who worked as an oncologist in Texas, to suggest that Patrick get into a clinical trial. At the time, she wanted to “come out with guns blazing" and try to stay positive.
“Your life turns on a dime, and it’s just never gonna be the same after that,” she said. “Everything shifted. 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.”
But staying positive was hard for Lisa, who admitted that she privately cried at times. One of the times Patrick saw her and she said “it scared him,” so she tried her best not to let him see her cry again.
It was hard for Patrick to keep a strong mind, too, at times. Lisa recalled one moment they were on a walk at their New Mexico ranch. “We’re walking along. It’s a beautiful day, and he looked at me with tears in his eyes, he said, 'I want to live,'” she shared.
Lisa remained by Patrick's side until he died in September 2009. She went on to remarry in 2014, wedding Albert DePrisco, which she revealed she got a lot of flak for. "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 said. "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? Ridiculous."
