The 10-year anniversary of Patrick Swayze’s death has shed new light on the difficult final days for the actor as he wasted away from pancreatic cancer and dealt with strife within his family.
The beloved actor died on September 14, 2009, one year after he was diagnosed with cancer. As Radar Online reported, Swayze’s final days were filled with pain as the disease left him “sickly’ and in “excruciating” pain, with a source telling the outlet that Swayze also suffered a nightmare marriage as wife Lisa Niemi kept him as a prisoner in his own home.
“He loved her with all his heart but it was a serious love-hate relationship,” a friend told the celebrity gossip outlet in an interview republished this week.
Niemi denied the allegation, and in a recent interview claimed that the actor’s mother was violent and abusive when he was young. She claimed that the abuse lasted until Swayze’s 18th birthday, when his father confronted his mother and threatened to divorce her if the abuse did not stop.
As The Inquisitr reported, Patsy Swayze was a well-known dance instructor who trained a number of future Broadway stars and Tony Awards winners, but was also known for being a perfectionist. Niemi claimed that her late husband was often the target of his mother’s anger, but the two had a complicated relationship as she helped him to become a star. Swayze and his mother later rebuilt their relationship and were close in his final years, the report noted.
The allegations of abuse drew strong pushback from Swayze’s brother, Sean Swayze, who blasted Niemi for stirring up drama.
In an interview with Radar Online , Sean accused Niemi of “grabbing for money” and said that she has no connection to the family.
“My family doesn’t even associate with that piece of sh*t,” he said. “There was never any abuse in our family.”
The actor’s life and final days have been highlighted in the documentary I Am Patrick Swayze, which aired last month. Radar Online also revived its past reports on Swayze, highlighting the pain of his final days as pancreatic cancer left him emaciated. The report noted that Swayze was in the midst of an acting comeback when he began to feel stomach pains in 2008, leading to his diagnosis.
As Radar Online noted, Swayze’s family said that Niemi was abusive toward him in his final days. As the report noted, a former maid also corroborated the claim, saying that Niemi was hot-tempered and unfaithful to the actor.