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Olivia Newton-John Opens Up About Ex Patrick McDermott's Disappearance

"Nobody really knows what happened."

In 2005, Olivia Newton-John's on-again, off-again boyfriend, cameraman Patrick McDermott, disappeared during a fishing trip off the coast of California.

And now the 68-year-old actress is finally opening up about how she dealt with the confusing aftermath.

"It was hard," she said in a new interview with 60 Minutes. "He was lost at sea and nobody really knows what happened."

The singer is right about one thing — no one knows why or how he vanished — but he may still be alive.

None of the 22 passengers on the fishing boat saw McDermott go overboard, according to Fox News.

According to a 2009 investigative story from NBC's Dateline, Newton-John and McDermott weren't together as a couple at the time.

Missing persons investigator Philip Klein told Dateline he was convinced the 48-year-old fled to Mexico, based on eyewitness reports and hits to a "Find Patrick McDermott" website he set up to lure the man, that Klein believed came from a boat travelling up and down Mexico's Pacific coast.

Actress Olivia Newton-John, centre, daughter Chloe, left, and boyfriend Patrick McDermott, right, arrive at the Los Angeles opening of 'Mamma Mia!' at the Shubert Theatre February 26, 2001 in Century City, CA. (Photo: Chris Weeks/Liaison)

He even speculated that McDermott had staged his own death so his teenage son could get his life insurance.

Newton-John's former beau owed more than C$40,000 at the time he vanished, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, including about $10,000 in child support to his ex-wife and son.

Rumoured to be working in Mexico with new girlfriend

Earlier this year, Klein came forward with what he said are more details about the cameraman's apparent new life.

In an interview with Woman's Day Australia in March, he claimed that McDermott was living in a remote Mexican village, "probably working in the yachting industry."

Another detective told the magazine he'd talked to people in Mexico who said McDermott was travelling with a woman with a German accent.

The Australian Daily Telegraph reported back in 2010 that it had seen emails showing McDermott had offered to give private investigators DNA evidence that he is still alive.

The emails apparently also revealed that he had no interest in staying in touch with Newton-John after their breakup.

But while the "Grease" star, who remarried in 2008 to John Easterling (her first marriage to husband Matt Lattanzi ended in 1995), may never know for sure what happened to her former flame, she told 60 Minutes she still wonders.

"Of course, I mean, it's human to wonder," she said. "Those are the things in life you have to accept and let go."

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