New details have surfaced about Olivia Newton-John’s improbably close friendship with her on-off lover’s ex-wife following his mysterious disappearance at sea.
Patrick McDermott, 48, went on a night fishing trip with 22 other people on June 30, 2005, but disappeared before returning to shore unnoticed.
Though fate haunted the singer amid nearly two decades of lurid claims that he faked his own death, Newton-John forged a special bond with McDermott’s ex-wife, Yvette Nipar.
Mrs Nipar was married to him from 1992 to 1994 and they had a son named Chance, who Newton-John was also very protective of.
Olivia Newton-John (right) is pictured with Yvette Nipar, the ex-wife of her former lover Patrick McDermott, who disappeared in 2005
Now, in an emotional social media post, Ms Nipar has revealed that Newton-John “always knew when to call”.
Just hours after Newton-John’s death at the age of 73, Ms Nipar wrote: “My sweet friend… I will miss you forever. You are free now, sister.’
In another, she said: “She always knew when to call — always.
“And that day her instinct was spot on – I’d only gone outside for a second. I will miss our chats and hang out nicely.
‘Fly free and sing and dance and laugh – oh how I’ll miss your laugh.’
In an interview with Larry King on CNN in 2006, Newton-John said McDermott’s disappearance led to a relationship with Ms Nipar and Chance.
“I’ve become very close with his ex-wife Yvette, who is a wonderful person and we’ve become good friends and I see his son and he’s doing well. He’s really fine,’ she said.
Ms Nipar later said Newton-John called her immediately after the CNN interview.
“I’ll never forget that she called me from the green room right after that because I knew how protective I was that my son’s name was constantly being posted there,” she said.
Yvette Nipar shared an emotional message (pictured above) on social media about her great friend Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John (left) poses with her then-boyfriend Patrick McDermott at the 10th Annual Human Rights Campaign Gala February 17, 2001 in Los Angeles
“She had no idea Larry would ask that.”
The US Coast Guard ruled that Mr. McDermott was probably missing at sea and “found no evidence of criminal activity, suicide, accidental or hoax in the disappearance.”
But conspiracy theories and innuendos have dogged the case ever since, with many “sightings” of him in Mexico and South America while he was allegedly on the run from mounting debt.
However, manhunts by the police, media and private investigators have never produced conclusive evidence, despite regular reports of him being uncovered.
“I don’t think I’ll ever really make peace with that,” Newton-John admitted of McDermott’s disappearance.
“I think there will always be a question mark.”
The mysterious fate of Olivia Newton-John’s on-off lover Patrick McDermott haunted the singer in her later years after he disappeared without a trace amid claims he faked his own death
She met Mr McDermott following her divorce from first husband Matt Lattanzi in 1995 and began a nine-year on-off romance with the cameraman.
Newton-John was on a promotional tour in Australia when McDermott disappeared and it was another week after the fishing trip before it was noticed that he had left.
The crew of his fishing boat had found the Korean-American’s car keys, passport and wallet on board the boat, and his car was found parked at the San Pedro Marina in Los Angeles.
But no one noticed he was missing until he failed to show up at a family event on July 6 and police were finally called on July 11.
By then, however, the trail had cooled – and the investigators found nothing.
Mr McDermott had been ordered by a court shortly before his disappearance to pay Ms Nipar $8,000 in retrospective child support.
Olivia Newton-John (shown here with daughter Chloe Lattanzi) met Patrick McDermott after their 1995 divorce and began a nine-year on-off romance with the cinematographer
Patrick McDermott, 48, went on a night fishing trip with 22 others on June 30, 2005, but disappeared before the Freedom boat returned to shore without anyone noticing
He had filed for bankruptcy with more than $30,000 in debt, leading to speculation that he had faked his death in order to escape and start over.
A three-year investigation into the fishing boat Freedom found it had not taken a people count on the day of the trip, allowing the disappearance to go unnoticed.
Although both inquiries concluded that Mr. McDermott was likely lost at sea during the night, there were constant reports that he was seen in Mexico, where he was said to be living on a yacht off the coast of Sayulita and Acapulco.
Television companies have repeatedly sent teams of undercover film crews and private investigators to look for him, and set up sophisticated online website traps to track him down.
Nearly two decades later, McDermott is reportedly hiding out in Mexico, fleeing crushing debt, and allegedly living on a yacht off the Mexican coast at Sayulita
One investigator, John Nazarian, stressed in 2016: “It is rumored that he was dating a German national. I spoke to people there.
“The girl he was traveling with was described with a German accent.
“To conclude that he fell off the boat and allegedly no one saw him fall off the boat is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”
However, all searches proved fruitless and Mr. McDermott was never found, alive or dead.
Photos of a man and woman believed to be Mr. McDermott and his new lover in Mexico were published by New Idea magazine in 2017.
But the claims were reversed weeks later when a Canadian couple came forward and said they were the people in the photo.
Olivia Newton-John left tragedy behind to move on with life, met future husband John Easterling and married him at an Inca ritual in Peru in 2008
Olivia Newton-John left tragedy behind to move on with life, met future husband John Easterling and married him at an Inca ritual in Peru in 2008.
But the mystery continued to haunt her in the years that followed, though she had come to terms with the fact that McDermott was most likely dead.
“He was lost at sea and nobody really knows what happened,” Newton-John told 60 Minutes in 2016.
“It’s human to wonder. Because whenever you’re going through tough times, there’s always those concerns.
“Those are the things in life that you have to accept and let go of. Of course there are always questions and that is human.
‘But you know, I live on.’
WHAT HAPPENED TO OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN’S LOST LOVER?
For nearly two decades, theories have swirled about the fate of Olivia Newton-John’s on-off lover, cinematographer Patrick McDermott, 48.
He disappeared on June 30, 2005 while on a 22-hour overnight fishing trip aboard the boat Freedom from the San Pedro Marina in Los Angeles.
The boat crew found his car keys, wallet and passport on board after all other passengers disembarked the next day, and his car was found parked nearby.
The crew hadn’t kept a staff count, so no one noticed he was missing for another week when he failed to show up for a family event and police were alerted nearly a week later.
Since then, speculation has raged as to what happened to him, and investigators have been unable to find any evidence of a crime, suicide, hoax or accident on the fishing trip.
Officials believe he simply fell overboard and drowned, but conspiracy theorists insist he may have had another boat offshore to pick him up.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing Patrick McDermott throughout Mexico, including near Acapulco
Others believe he may have stowed his belongings on the boat before it slipped off, possibly before it even left port without anyone noticing.
Private investigators set up a website FindPatrickMcDermott.com to try to trick the missing American into giving himself away and identifying the location of everyone who accessed the site.
A surge of internet traffic from the Sayulita region of Mexico’s west coast sparked an unsuccessful hunt for him there.
Others say they saw him on a yacht off the coast of Acapulco, 1,000km south.
An investigator claimed to have found him and spoken to him in 2009 and said he just wanted to be left alone, but the claim was unfounded.
Another claimed to have categorical evidence he was alive and was close to revealing it – but never did.
Over the years he has been sighted in Mexico and Central America at least 20 times, but many have been proven wrong.
A series of pictures of a couple said to be the distinctive-looking McDermott – who was half-Korean and adopted at the age of two – turned out to be a Canadian couple.
His ex-wife Yvette Nipar, the mother of their son Chance, asked for the speculation to end for her child’s sake.
She asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to block the publication of a book by private investigator Philip Klein about her ex’s disappearance.
“My son has been through enough emotional agony because of this,” Ms Nipar wrote, branding Klein a “serial liar.”
“Due to Mr. Klein’s constant efforts to keep him in the public eye, he has yet to be able to move on.
‘Let him rest in peace.’