“I am not Olivia Newton-John’s missing ex-boyfriend”
Wes Stobbe wants the world to know he is not Olivia Newton-John’s missing former boyfriend, Patrick McDermott.
The Canadian woodworker and pub owner has been forced to set the record straight after seeing their faces on the covers and in pages of tabloids and gossip websites all around the world, including New Idea in Australia and The National Enquirer in the US.
“I am not Patrick McDermott,” Stobbe, 63, laughed in an interview with AAP from his home in Manitoba, Canada.
“Do I look German?” Shaw added.
Wes Stobbe has been forced to set the record straight that he is not Patrick McDermott.
Stobbe’s wife Bridget Shaw would also like the world to know she is not McDermott’s “mystery woman” or “German lover”.
Stobbe and Shaw regularly visit the Mexican seaside paradise of Sayulita. In October they were photographed sitting at a picnic table watching surfers on the nearby break and other beachgoers.
As Stobbe has long hair similar to McDermott’s and the photo quality poor and fuzzy, the image was quickly touted around the globe to be the missing man.
Olivia Newton-John with Patrick Kim McDermott at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne in 2002.
To the couple’s surprise, weeks later the blurry photos began appearing in the media as “world exclusive” photos of McDermott, Newton-John’s former boyfriend who went missing from a fishing boat off Los Angeles in 2005.
The US Coast Guard ultimately concluded McDermott likely drowned at sea while on the fishing expedition, but conspiracy theorist believe McDermott faked his death and escaped to Mexico to avoid debts and child support payments from a previous marriage.
Stobbe only realised he was being portrayed as McDermott when a friend emailed him one of the articles.
He immediately tried to contact Newton-John to set the record straight, sending an email through a fan website to let her know the stories were false.
“I don’t like to play around with the emotions of people,” he said.
The couple would like the publications to correct their stories.
“In the end, for the family’s sake they need to know it is not Patrick McDermott,” Shaw said.