Sean Swayze Isn't Here For Patrick Swayze's Widow Lisa Niemi's Claims Their Mother Was Abusive
Sean is here to defend his mama!
Getty Images 80's babies, listen up: there's a new Patrick Swayze documentary out now, and it's here to give you an unprecedented look inside the life of the late, great Dirty Dancing actor. But there's one particular claim that has the Swayze family getting their back up. Who is Sean Swayze, and why does he have beef with Lisa Niemi?
Let's look at what we know about this actor.
1. He's an actor in his own right, who bears more than a passing resemblance to his famous brother.
According to Sean's IMDB page, he's an actor in his own right, whose most infamous role is as a driver in Letters From A Killer. While he's nowhere near as famous as his brother once was, he bears more than a passing resemblance to the iconic actor.
2. Sean Swayze, and the rest of the Swayze family, have been beefing with Lisa Niemi since 2015.
"According to reports, the family had plans to turn the late actor’s beloved ranch, Rancho Bizarro, into a museum commemorating the Dirty Dancing star. Instead, Lisa sold the ranch, much to the chagrin of the Swayzes. “Lisa sold everything — including the Mercedes that [Patrick] bought her from his Road House [earnings],” his niece, Danielle Swayze, said at the time. “It’s a slap in the face to Patrick’s fans. And to not even give the Swayze family anything is just cold-hearted," reported Closer Weekly, who added that part of the Swayze beef with Lisa had to do with the fact that, shortly after Patrick died, she remarried a billionaire and seemed to forget all about Patrick.
3. Lisa Niemi was the pivotal figure in the I Am Patrick Swayze documentary.
According to the Herald-Dispatch, Lisa Niemi — who was married to Patrick for more than 30 years before his death in 2009 — played a pivotal role in the I Am Patrick Swayze documentary, which was released on what would have been the actor's 67th birthday.
4. Patrick's mother, Patsy, taught him how to dance.
"Born August 18, 1952 in Houston, Texas, Swayze was literally raised in a dance studio run by his mother Patsy Swayze, who died in 2013. “Didn’t believe in babysitters,” she said in a Biography special. “Took all my babies with me to work. They grew up in a playpen in the dance studio," said Biography.com.
5. Lisa Niemi claims that Patsy Swayze was abusive.
According to USA Today, Lisa claimed that Patsy would "lay into" Patrick, and that she was "very violent." She even recalled a time when her abuse of Patrick led to a physical confrontation between Patsy and her husband (and Patrick's dad), Jesse.
6. But Sean Swayze calls shenanigans on Lisa's claims.
"She has been grubbing for money since he died. Anything that makes her money she’ll tell the press. There was never any abuse. She [our mom] had a temper. We all had tempers. Everyone had violent tempers. But there were no beatings. We got spankings and whippings, like a good old southern boy. All we did was get our whippings growing up. We never got punched in the face, hit across the body or slapped in the face. We got a belt to our butts growing up. That was normal back then. And it doesn’t mean it’s abuse," he told Radar Online.
7. Sean isn't the only Swayze in the news recently.
According to Radar, Patrick and Sean's sister Bambi Swayze has been accused of alcohol abuse and criminal behavior by her ex-husband Don Frazen amid a contentious divorce battle.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.