Patrick Swayze's Widow Recalls When He Learned He Had Cancer: 'He Turned to Me and Said, I'm a Dead Man'

Lisa Niemi Swayze also spoke out about the hate she got after she remarried following her husband's death

Lisa Niemi Swayze is looking back on the first moments her husband told her he was sick.

During an April 7 appearance on the Amy and T.J. Podcast with hosts Amy Robach and T. J. Holmes, the widow of the late Dirty Dancing star, 67, recalled how Patrick told her he had been diagnosed with cancer.

"When he first found out he had pancreatic cancer he turned to me and said, 'I’m a dead man,'" Lisa recalled. "I didn’t know much about pancreatic cancer, but he did, and from what he knew anytime you heard someone had had pancreatic cancer it was like, 'Well, he’s out of here.'"

"Sure enough, the doctor said you can go ahead and treat it and be as aggressive as you want, but do think about getting your affairs in order sooner rather than later," she added, recalling how she found out about her husband's cancer hours before he did, simply because of how disoriented he was after undergoing an endoscopic procedure to confirm the diagnosis.

Related: Patrick Swayze's Widow Lisa Still Feels His Presence — And Believes They'll Be Reunited

"My first action was — I called my sister in law who’s a brilliant oncologist in Houston, Texas, and when I told her the news she was like, 'Oh no, we need a clinical trial for him. I don’t want you to delay. I want you to have him in treatment within a week, come out with guns blazing,'" she recalled. "Your life turns on a dime and it’s just never been the same after that. Everything shifted. ...We kept so positive about everything but I tell you what, it was like living in a complete nightmare 24/7."

Lisa also recalled how Patrick got candid about his diagnosis with her as the two of them spent a day together on their New Mexico ranch, discussing how they might want to go camping one final time before he died.

"We’re walking along. It’s a beautiful day and he looked at me with tears in his eyes, he said, 'I want to live,'" she said.

Related: Patrick Swayze's Widow on Their Love 14 Years After His Death: It 'Doesn't End Your Relationship'

Lisa first met Patrick in his mother's dance studio and married him in 1975, a year after Lisa moved to New York City to perform with the prestigious Joffrey Ballet.

The classically trained dancers went on to appear in many movies and TV shows, often as costars. The couple even co-wrote and acted alongside each other in a play that became the 2003 film One Last Dance, which Lisa also directed.

However, the public nature of their relationship made it hard for Lisa to deal with fans after Patrick's death, she said — especially after she got remarried in 2014, four years after Patrick’s death, to jeweler Albert DePrisco.

Related: Who Is Patrick Swayze’s Wife? All About Lisa Niemi Swayze

"Pretty quickly after Patrick died, I heard about [Joyce Carol Oates]," Lisa recalled to laughs from Robach and Holmes. "She, like, got married 6 months after her husband died ...and as I went along, I went, 'You go girl, good for you.'"

"Life is too short to not find love and it’s too long to be alone," she added. "Yes, I got a lot of flack — It’s like 'How dare you.' There are some pretty rabid Patrick fans out there who think I'm evil or just don’t like me because I was married to him. ... You just learn to deal with it and move on. I was so tempted so many times to say, 'Hey girlfriend, stand in my shoes. Tell me about it. Go ahead. Tell me just because I lost my husband that I don't love him anymore.' How could you say that?"

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer , from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Elsewhere in the interview, the dancer also said that her late husband worried about his legacy after being diagnosed — but, according to Lisa, he had no reason to.

Related: Patrick Swayze's Wife Says She 'Got a Lot of Flack' After Marrying Again Following His Death: 'You Just Learn to Deal'

"I have to say he needn't have worried at all, he’s still very much in people’s minds," she said. "He knew he had achieved great fame. He also knew that at times he could be difficult, but I’ll tell you what, most of the people around him never saw that difficult side and absolutely adored him."

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.