Bridget Jones star Patrick Dempsey dogged by first wife’s domestic abuse allegations
New Bridget hunk has had a rocky love life of his own, married to a much older woman who says he beat her 'to see what it was like'
HAPLESS heroine Bridget Jones is famous for her bumpy love life.
But the singleton’s romantic ups and downs are nothing compared to the scandal-hit private life of her latest screen love interest.
For Hollywood heart-throb Patrick Dempsey, billionaire Jack Qwant in new film Bridget Jones’s Baby, fought a bitter divorce battle in which he was accused of assaulting his first wife — actress Rochelle “Rocky” Parker, 26 years his senior.
In legal documents seen by The Sun on Sunday, she claims their marriage crumbled after Patrick — who she refers to as the “Respondent” — left her for another woman.
She wrote: “While we were on the set of his (1987) movie Can’t Buy Me Love, he beat me up because he claimed he ‘wanted to see what it was like to beat up a woman!’ I now suffer from arthritis in my hand from where Respondent injured me.”
She added: “The physical abuse included Respondent breaking my finger when he rushed me to a van and closed the door on my finger.”
Rocky later retracted the allegations of domestic violence.
But in 1994 court papers she went on to claim: “During the marriage I began seeing a psychiatrist on a regular basis, and I was placed on anti- depressants and other prescription medications to help me function.”
Now 50-year-old Patrick is enduring more marital woes. Last week he admitted he is battling to save his second marriage, to make-up artist Jillian Fink, 49, after she too filed for divorce.
The problems in his personal life are not reflected in Patrick’s long and successful career.
He shot to fame in 2000s US medical drama Grey’s Anatomy as clean-cut surgeon Dr Derek Shepherd, inset right — dubbed “McDreamy” in the programme — and has starred in several romantic movies among more than 30 Hollywood productions.
It was in 1984, during one of his first acting jobs, that Patrick met Rocky, a widowed mother of three, after they were both cast in a touring production of the Neil Simon play Brighton Beach Memoirs.
Patrick, then 18, played a teenage boy navigating the pitfalls of puberty, while Rocky was his aunt.
The pair forged a close bond after Rocky took a keen interest in Patrick’s career. She said: “I started talking to him about acting. We would work after the show.
“During the time we were together I went with him everywhere, to sets, anywhere he had to go. If there was going to be a camera there, I would make sure I was there for him.”
By the time the theatre company hit the road, they had become an unlikely couple and were living together. In 1987 they married — he was 21 and she was 47.
During an interview about their relationship Rocky said: “We were on the road for a year and since it was a young cast, I kind of became the mom.
“I had taught acting for years so we would all get together when we weren’t working and do scenes or rent videos and watch old films.
“I don’t know how it happened. I thought it was insane when a young cousin of mine got involved with an older woman years ago. Then it happens to you. You certainly don’t look for it, but it teaches you to never say never.”
Patrick, who often joked that he was younger than his wife’s three children, became best friends with her son Corey, now 51, who recalled: “She and Patrick were together for a long time before getting married, and when they did, they eloped to Santa Monica.
“People said things but she really didn’t care, she was following her heart.”
Even so, after they married the pair kept their new status a secret for two years, fearing what others would say about the age gap.
Rocky abandoned acting and adopted a powerful, Svengali-like role in Patrick’s life as his coach and manager.
But for a large part of their relationship Patrick’s career floundered — as eventually did their love. In 1992, after eight years together, Rocky filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences” after Patrick admitted cheating.
It was during the bitter, four-year legal battle that Rocky laid bare shocking claims that Patrick was abusive on many occasions.
Rocky, who died aged 74 of throat and lung cancer in 2014, also claimed she not only nurtured Patrick’s talent but helped him “get off drugs and alcohol”.
While they were together Patrick’s annual earnings rose to $1million (£760,000), but Rocky complained she was never paid as his manager.
Her declaration was part of her divorce petition filed at Los Angeles Superior Court and available to the public. In it she wrote: “I gave up on my acting career so we could work exclusively on his.
“His plan was that once he got established or known he would then help me get a career through his then connections.”
In the papers she claimed Patrick had splashed out on designer clothes and a Porsche while she worried about saving for retirement.
Eventually the court ordered him to pay £7,500 a month in spousal support and allow Rocky to stay in their house. She also received a BMW convertible.
Patrick — who ironically got his earliest film breaks playing characters who have affairs with much older women — has always firmly denied Rocky’s claims and says she filed false statements.
In 2006 Rocky withdrew the allegations she had made during their divorce hearing.
She said: “In the heat of a divorce, sometimes people say things they normally wouldn’t. But the statements of physical and mental abuse, as well as alcoholism and drug use, are false.”
Patrick has argued that there were infidelities on both sides. He has described the marriage as “ridiculous” and “a Freudian nightmare that’s publicly known”.
But he wasn’t always so dismissive. While still married to Rocky he gushed about his cougar bride.
He said: “I like being in a relationship with someone who’s lived through more than I have.
“If I was with someone my own age, I don’t think it would work. We’d both be too inexperienced, too caught up in our own stuff. Rocky has helped me tremendously just by assuring me that I’m OK and not stupid.”
Even so, Rocky once claimed that Patrick, who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, could barely read or write when they met.
He admitted: “I used to have to prepare a week in advance for a script reading. Rocky got me to practise reading out loud every day. She taught me to relax about it, take it easy.”
Aside from acting, Patrick has been a champion downhill skier and even trained for the Olympics.
He also competed in international juggling competitions and harboured ambitions of attending clown college.
He said: “Growing up, I longed for acceptance. I felt like a misfit, an outsider. I was a failure in school as well as socially and I’m still trying to shake some of the insecurity left over from that.”
Although in recent years Patrick has been named one of the “sexiest men alive” in a magazine poll, as a young actor he was frequently cast in geeky roles, due to his gangly frame and curly hair.
His image transformation has long given rise to rumours that he has had a nose job.
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In 1999 he married Jillian and they have three children — Talula Fyfe, 14, and nine-year-old twin boys Sullivan Patrick and Darby Galen.
Jillian filed for divorce in January last year, again citing irreconcilable differences, but the pair reunited a few months later. Earlier this month Patrick opened up about his latest marital crisis, confessing he and Jillian had received marriage counselling.
In the past, the petrolhead actor has admitted to spending long periods away from his family, indulging in his obsessive motor racing hobby.
Patrick has competed in a string of top races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and even admitted in 2013 he would happily walk away from acting to compete full-time.
For the time being he seems determined to avoid another bitter divorce showdown.
He said: “You can only do one thing at a time and do it well. I learned to prioritise. Our union has to be the priority. I wasn’t prepared to give up on her and she wasn’t either. We both wanted to fight for it.”
And in a mantra of which Bridget Jones herself would no doubt approve, Patrick said: “You’ve got to keep at it.
“You’ve got to communicate and stay open and not get lazy. And not give up. And have lots of sex!”