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Olivia Newton-John Believed Ex Patrick McDermott May Have Drowned or Been Killed After Disappearance
Olivia Newton-John reportedly believed her ex-boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, may have been “killed” or “drowned” after he went missing off the coast of Los Angeles 21 years ago.
Matthew Hild explores the cameraman’s mysterious 2005 disappearance in his new biography of the late Grease star, A Little More Love: The Life and Legacy of Olivia Newton-John, set for release Thursday.
The author spoke with several of Newton-John’s friends and colleagues, with one revealing what the four-time Grammy winner privately believed had happened to her “on-again, off-again” partner.
Friends confess she never thought he survived missing fishing trip off Los Angeles coast
“She thought he’d been murdered, ” Olivia Newton-John’s friend and partner Liona Boyd told Matthew Hild, according to People. “She thought he was drowned.”
Boyd continued that Newton-John didn’t buy into later theories that McDermott had been seen alive. “She didn’t believe all the gossip about the sightings in Mexico. She said, ‘No, I don’t believe that.'”
Newton-John met cameraman Patrick McDermott shortly after her 1995 split from actor Matt Lattanzi.
In her 2018 autobiography, the Grease diva spoke of their relationship as “on-again, off-again, ” and also wrote they were “off-again” at the time of his disappearance during an overnight fishing trip in June 2005.
Rumors quickly started circulating about the possible fate of 48-year-old McDermott.
One of the wildest theories was that he purposely vanished and escaped to Mexico after facing money problems.
“Whether he had financial problems and therefore decided to disappear, whether it was a murder or a kidnapping, it seems no one really knows, ” Louise Pennell, a reporter working overseas for the Seven Network Australia, revealed to NBC News in 2005.
“What we do know is that, financially, there were some issues. Patrick McDermott, the man on the fishing boat, told the crew that he had some alimony problems with his former wife who is an actress, ” said Pennell. “As far as I know, he was actually complaining about money problems with her.”
McDermott was formerly married to actress Yvette Nipar, their divorce was finalized in June 1993 and the couple had a son, Chance, together.
Initial Reports and Confirmed Facts About Patrick McDermott’s Disappearance
Another detective, John Nazarian, asserted that he personally saw the missing cameraman in Mexico along with a woman even after he was declared missing.
“I talked to people over there, ” Nazarian revealed in 2016. The girl he was with was reported to have a German accent. However, in Matthew Hild’s book that is about to be published, the author claims that Newton-John also contacted a security specialist, Gavin de Becker, who reportedly dispatched private investigators to Mexico to locate McDermott, and they found out that he was not there.
Subsequently, based on the shelling out methods, the U.S. Coast Guard came to the conclusion that McDermott was a victim of “extremely unfortunate circumstance” and “most likely lost at sea”.
Newton-John spoke about his disappearance publicly for the first time, one year later, after the release of the results of those investigations.
“I reckon there will always be the question… I just don’t think I’ll ever be truly at peace with it, ” she responded to Australian Women’s Weekly in 2009.
Olivia Newton-John Remembered Patrick McDermott Incident Years After He Vanished
The “I Honestly Love You” artist shared her perspective of the disappearance of Patrick McDermott during a chat with Australia’s 60 Minutes in 2016.
“He went missing at sea, and no one really knows what happened, ” she remarked. “It’s natural for a person to ask himself. But those are, you know, the things in life that you have to accept and let go. Because when you are going through very hard times, there are always those worries.”
Newton-John slowly got on with her life and later in 2008 tied the knot with the businessman John Easterling, a few years after McDermott had disappeared.
The Australian legend and Easterling continued their marriage until her passing in August 2022 at 73 years old after a prolonged fight against breast cancer.
