Patrick Swayze’s widow Lisa Niemi says he came to her in a dream, gave his 'blessing' for her to remarry

“Patrick’s still with me. I still have a relationship with him,” she told Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes. “Everyday he’s with me and I feel him there.”

Patrick Swayze’s widow, Lisa Niemi, is opening up about her journey finding love after loss.

On the latest episode of T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach’s podcast, the former professional dancer reflected on her decision to remarry after Swayze’s death. Niemi feels she got approval from the only source that truly mattered — Swayze himself.

“I actually had a dream, when we were looking at getting married,” she recalled. “It was like he was resurrected. And I was in this courtyard — and when I see him in my dreams, he can never speak, but I can understand what he was saying. And he came up to me and he put his arms around me, and I was like, 'I can't marry Albert now because you're back. Thank god you’re back!'”

She explained that in the dream, Swayze looked at her and “his words that came to me were, ‘I know you love me. And that has nothing to do with it.' 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."

However, fans of the late star haven't felt similarly, in fact she says remarrying earned her plenty of “criticism” from his fans.

“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 and just don’t like me because I was married to him,” she said. “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.’ It’s ridiculous.”

Swayze died at 57 in 2009, two years after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The couple previously married in 1975 and were together until he passed. Three years after his death, Niemi met her now-husband Albert DePrisco, who was himself recovering from a “heartbreaking” divorce. Niemi said, “If we had met before then it would not have happened but after three years we were about ready.”

Of stumbling upon the relationship, she added, "I didn't realize just how lonely I was until much, much later. Because I'm a buck up kinda girl. I can take it. 'This is not loneliness I'm feeling, I'm dealing with grief.' But it was so wonderful when he came into my life."

As she indicated, Niemi initially had her own reservations when DePrisco asked for her hand in marriage — but they were eased by the dream, and a candid conversation with her partner. “I was like, ‘Oh shit,’” she said of her proposal reaction, earning laughs from Robach and Holmes. “I felt like I was already married, in a way."

But when she asked DePrisco if he was bothered by her lasting love for Swayze, he said, "'No, I know you love him and I know you love me. And I’m here to love you now.’”

As for those who wonder how she could “forget about Patrick,” Niemi laughed, “Are you kidding me? Patrick’s still with me. I still have a relationship with him. It’s just, he’s physically not here. Everyday he’s with me and I feel him there.”

You can listen to Niemi reflect on her marriage to Swayze in the podcast above.

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