Patrick Dempsey's First Wife Rocky Parker Was 26 Years His Senior — He Called It a 'Freudian Nightmare'
Before Patrick Dempsey was Dr. McDreamy, he was an 18-year-old kid just breaking into the acting industry, and the woman who would shape his early career was about to become much more than his manager.
Who Was Rocky Parker? All About Patrick Dempsey's First Wife
Dempsey met Rochelle "Rocky" Parker in 1984 while performing in a stage production of Brighton Beach Memoirs. He was 18 and she was 44. The casting was ironic in retrospect — they played aunt and nephew. A romance began almost immediately, and Dempsey soon asked Parker to become his manager as well.
Their relationship remained largely private for years, partly because of the 26-year age gap and partly because of the professional conflict of a manager dating her client. They married in August 1987 — Dempsey was 21, Parker was 47 — and kept the marriage secret for two years. By then, Dempsey was already becoming a recognizable face, having landed his breakout role in Can't Buy Me Love the same year they wed.
Patrick Dempsey Was Only One Year Older Than Rocky Parker's Son
Parker had three children from previous relationships. Her oldest son was born in 1956 — seven years older than Dempsey. Her second child was just one year younger than her new husband.
The marriage lasted seven years before unraveling in a divorce that turned contentious. Parker initially claimed Dempsey assaulted her on the set of Can't Buy Me Love, allegations she later retracted, stating she "had been advised to make those accusations" during the proceedings. The divorce was finalized in 1994.
Dempsey has rarely spoken warmly about the relationship in the years since. In a 2006 interview with Barbara Walters, he described it as a "Freudian nightmare that is public knowledge." He added: "I think I needed a mother. There were a lot of negative things that I'm still undoing from it."
Parker died in 2014 at 74.
Patrick Dempsey's Marriage to Jillian Fink
Three years after his divorce was finalized, Dempsey met Jillian Fink — a hairstylist who initially thought his appointment was a joke because colleagues would often book celebrity names for regular clients. She was pleasantly surprised when he walked in. They married in 1999 and have three children together — daughter Talula Fyfe and twin sons Sullivan Patrick and Darby Gallen.
Dempsey, now 58, was named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive and continues to work steadily in film and television. The Rocky Parker chapter remains one of the more unusual stories in Hollywood — a secret marriage between a teenager and a woman old enough to be his mother, kept quiet for years, that ended in a mess (go figure).