Heartbroken Olivia Newton-John is selling her 'haunted' home in Malibu after living with the ghost of her missing lover for 18 months. Three years ago Olivia bought the sprawling oceanfront mansion at Retreat Court, the celebrity-studded colony on the Californian coast, for $6.8 million to share with her boyfriend Patrick McDermott.
The Australian songbird, who turns 60 this year, planned to spend the rest of her life with the cameraman in the spacious Mediterranean-style home. Only 10 months later Olivia was crushed when 48-year-old Patrick, whom she'd dated for nine years, mysteriously disappeared while on an overnight fishing trip.
'The house has never been the same since Patrick vanished into thin air,' a family insider says. 'For the first few months Olivia would walk into various rooms, especially the master bedroom, and everything would remind her of the man she once loved so deeply. Although she eventually tried to move on with her life, she felt as though the spirit
of her ex-lover haunted the house. She said sometimes it was as though he were still sitting in the living room next to the fireplace, his favourite spot,' the insider says. 'And when her daughter and live-in housekeeper weren't home, Olivia sometimes heard strange noises that made her wonder if Patrick's ghost was stalking the property.'
The insider says Olivia, who attended G'Day USA celebrations with her new love John Easterling, was plagued by concerns that if she sold the house it would be admitting Patrick was dead or never coming back. 'Either way, she realised she had to bury her past and start over with a fresh slate.'
Patrick's disappearance from the fishing boat Freedom has been shrouded in mystery from the start. It's presumed he drowned after jumping overboard while depressed over mounting debts.
But it's also believed Patrick may have faked his suicide to escape a possible jail sentence for failure to pay thousands to his ex-wife, actress Yvette Nipar, for child support for their teenage son. Following reports he'd been spotted in Mexico's tourist mecca Cabo San Lucas, in June 2006, Olivia held a glimmer of hope that Patrick would one day come back to her.
