Olivia Newton-John was haunted until her death by…
Olivia Newton-John was said to be haunted for the remaining of her life by the mysterious disappearance of her ex, who vanished during a 2005 fishing journey off the California coast.
The decades-long disappearance of cameraman Patrick McDermott is being revisited in Matthew Hild’s new biography of the Grammy-winning celebrity, “A Little More Love.” The ebook explores the lasting toll the unsolved case took on the singer, beloved by generations as Sandy in the blockbuster musical “Grease.” Newton-John died in 2022 at age 73 after a long battle with breast cancer.
“It’s still an unsolved mystery,” Hild told Fox News Digital. “Olivia said at one level that this would hang-out her eternally because no one would ever actually know what occurred. And to this day, there are studies that Patrick McDermott is believed to be alive in Mexico.
“But what she finally told one of her closest friends was, ‘I don’t believe that. I believe he was killed. I think he drowned.’ And I don’t think she ever really made peace with it, because how do you make peace with something like that?”
On June 30, 2005, McDermott boarded the fishing vessel Freedom and embarked on an in a single day fishing journey while Newton-John was in Melbourne. The 48-year-old’s household grew fearful after he failed to attend an event with family members. McDermott’s ex-wife also revealed that he hadn’t picked up their 13-year-old son as scheduled.
After contacting authorities, McDermott’s household realized that he had left a bag full of belongings on the boat, and his car was still parked in the lot at San Pedro’s twenty second Street Marina.
Olivia Newton-John and Boyfriend Patrick McDermott WireImage
According to the ebook, Frank Liversedge, the marina’s touchdown supervisor, said that he believed McDermott “did not disappear at sea and probably made it to shore, but left his possessions for unknown reasons.” He added, “I’ve been here 45 years as a boat captain and vessel master. I have never lost a fisherman.”
Hild said that as tabloids swarmed a devastated Newton-John, it wasn’t publicly revealed that she and McDermott had been in an on-again, off-again relationship. While they had been “off-again” at the time of his disappearance, they hadn’t formally ended their relationship.
“Some of the people I interviewed confirmed this,” Hild said. “They also remember that at the time he disappeared, Olivia and Patrick had taken a break from each other, but that didn’t necessarily mean a final breakup, because they’d done that before. At the very least, he was a close friend of hers, regardless of the state of their romantic relationship. So obviously it was a huge blow to her. And I think this was another example of her strength and resilience.”
Persistent studies prompt that McDermott had been depressed and closely in debt. According to a number of studies, McDermott filed for chapter in 2000 and still owed little one assist funds. Still, mates said McDermott confirmed no indicators of depression and was a doting father who would never abandon his son.
Hild said there have been growing rumors of McDermott faking his own death, with some insisting they noticed him in Mexico. Newton-John, determined for solutions, tried to take issues into her own arms.
“A Little More Love” is Matthew Hild’s new biography of the Grammy-winning celebrity.
Speculation surrounding Mexico emerged after a number of reported sightings of McDermott there in the years following his disappearance. Tabloids and personal investigators claimed he had been residing under an assumed id in coastal Mexican cities, fueling conspiracy theories that he faked his own death to escape financial troubles. However, no conclusive evidence ever surfaced to affirm those claims.
“She hired Gavin de Becker, who was her longtime personal security expert,” Hild said. “Gavin de Becker is still a security expert to the stars and has worked with her for years. She hired him to send his team down there and try to find Patrick McDermott. They never found him, never found any tangible evidence that he was still alive.”
In August 2005, Newton-John issued a public assertion: “I am hopeful that my treasured friend is safe and well, and I am grateful to the officials who are working so hard to find Patrick, whom I love very much. I ask anybody with information that could help to please, please come forward.”
Hild said Newton-John never purchased into the rumors and conspiracy theories surrounding what occurred to McDermott, but questions about his destiny adopted her for years.
“It’s a really painful topic,” she said on “Showbiz Tonight” in October of that yr, as quoted in the ebook. “And it’s still under investigation. And I’m just — I love him very much, and as you can imagine, this is an incredibly hard thing to go through.”
“I was just kind of frozen,” she shared. “And you know, life, you have to move forward a little bit. It was one of the reasons that I decided to sing again. I didn’t think I was going to sing again, and I had to move forward.”
Dance teacher Joe Giamalva told Hild that in the months after McDermott vanished, Newton-John immersed herself in faucet dancing lessons at Malibu Fitness. “I think it was a getaway for her,” he said. “It was an hour she could get away and take her mind off all that s–t.”
Olivia Newton-John during the annual Wellness Walk and Research Runon September 16, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. WireImage
Hild wrote that a yr after the “Showbiz Tonight” interview, Larry King stunned Newton-John by bringing up McDermott’s disappearance. Newton-John told him she remained in contact with his household.
“I’ve become very close to his ex-wife, Yvette [Nipar], who’s a wonderful person, and we’ve become good friends, and I see his son, and he’s thriving. He’s doing really well,” she told King.
That’s when King publicly talked about McDermott’s son, Hild said.
Nipar later said, “I’ll never forget her calling me from the green room right after this, knowing how protective I was about my son’s name constantly being put out there. She had no idea Larry was going to ask this.”
Hild said that over the years, Newton-John grew to become protecting of Nipar and her son.
“This was a personal tragedy for Olivia,” Hild said. “She became close friends with Patrick’s ex-wife and Patrick’s child as well. One of Olivia’s biggest concerns was that every time she was asked publicly about Patrick’s disappearance and the conspiracy theories surrounding it, the attention would affect Patrick’s child and his ex-wife.”
In 2009, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a assertion saying the company was “not actively investigating this case,” People magazine reported.
Olivia Newton-John with daughter Chloe and Patrick Kim McDermott. FilmMagic
“The Coast Guard Investigative Service closed its case Sept. 15, 2006, and did not find any evidence of criminal action, suicide, accident or hoax in the disappearance of McDermott,” the Coast Guard said in its release.
“A separate marine safety investigation followed, looking into the operation of the fishing vessel itself and was closed Oct. 30, 2008. A marine safety investigation is standard in cases of loss of life in the marine environment.”
“Both investigations suggest that McDermott was lost at sea,” the assertion concluded.
That same yr, Newton-John told a journalist, “I think there will always be a question mark. I don’t think I will ever really be at peace with it.”
Hild said the case continued to hassle Newton-John.
“It was a heavy personal burden,” he said. “Just the disappearance alone, but also the nonstop press scrutiny, all the way through her death and even beyond. This question won’t go away.”
Newton-John started courting McDermott shortly after her 1995 divorce from Matt Lattanzi. They had been together, on and off, for about 9 years.
“I talked to some people who knew Patrick pretty well,” Hild said. “Aside from being a photographer and a cameraman, Patrick was a guitar player. And so, the guys in Olivia’s band would jam with him. They all said he was a kind, sweet person. I didn’t hear anybody who said a bad word about him. I talked to probably a dozen people who knew him and, across the board, they all said he was a very kind person.”
Newton-John went on to discover love again. She married her second husband, John Easterling, in 2008. They remained together until her death.
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