Lisa Niemi: Patrick Swayze’s Widow Finds Love Again, Marries Albert DePrisco

Lisa Niemi has tied the knot again.

The 57-year-old, who was married to actor Patrick Swayze for 34 years before his 2009 death, married jeweler Albert DePrisco this weekend.

Lisa Niemi and DePrisco had met a few years ago after being introduced by mutual friends. They dated for close to a year and a half before Albert proposed on Christmas Eve.

The couple was married in Palm Beach, Florida, in a small ceremony before about 50 guests.

“We wanted it fresh and happy,” Niemi told People, which first reported on the nuptials.

The marriage was a big step for Lisa Niemi, who said it took her three years to stop wearing her wedding ring:

“About a year ago or eight months ago, all of a sudden I had this bizarre thought and it didn’t really make sense to me, but I had a moment when I went, ‘you know what this ring says? I’m married to his physical form and actually my connection to him, since he has been gone, has been much deeper than that. And I felt like in a way, for me personally, wearing the ring was lying about the depth of our relationship.”

Niemi and Swayze were seen as the rare success story in Hollywood, a couple that remained grounded and avoided the limelight. They met in 1970, when Lisa was 14 and studying at a dance academy run by Patrick’s mother.

“I went to New York for four years and danced with ballet companies, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Lisa and I couldn’t figure out why I kept going back to her,” Swayze, who was 20 when he met Lisa, told the Daily Mail in 2005, noting that they were friends for “a long time.”

Lisa also admitted that falling in love with Albert DePrisco brought a new wave of emotions.

“They say that falling in love is wonderful,” Niemi wrote on her website. “That sick feeling. The butterfly stomach, the rubbery legs, the diminished mental capacity.” She added, “A feeling of being paralyzed, like some kind of speared fish, floating helplessly after a powerful sedative.”

But Lisa Niemi and Albert DePrisco also went through some difficult times, even briefly splitting in 2013 as they dealt with the challenges of a long-distance relationship.

[Photo via Facebook]