I am sitting in the very hip Soho hotel in London when my phone beeps – another message telling me how lucky I am to be interviewing the delicious Patrick Dempsey.
But surely a man who is nicknamed McDreamy and adored by millions of women around the world has to be at least the tiniest bit conceited, and that could spell a difficult interview.
However, 20 minutes later I am floating out the front door.
Not only does the red-hot star have the ability to light up a room with his smouldering good looks, he also has the adorable underdog appeal – the nice guy who made it against all odds.
The rise and fall of his career has taught the Irish-American about the fleeting nature of celebrity and what is important in life – being a good husband and dad.
In his latest film, Made of Honour, he plays a commitment-phobe who realises that he is in love with his best friend when she falls for a Scotsman and decides to get married.
The 42-year-old has no problem committing in real life though, having been married twice already.
Patrick met his current wife, Jill, when he walked into her hair salon in 1994 for a cut…and she’s been keeping his locks in check since.
He admits that she helps keep his feet on the ground, and doesn’t buy into the heartthrob tag: “She calls me a lot of things, but not McDreamy,” he laughs.
The couple have been married for nine years, and Patrick puts the success of his marriage down to old-fashioned hard work: “The more we work through our issues and grow individually, and as a couple, and as our family grows, we grow closer together. It comes with a lot of work, understanding , and sacrifice,” he says.
“I’m a better person because of my relationship with Jill”.
But Patrick’s first marriage wasn’t so successful: “I learned a lot from that marriage, it prepared me for this one”, he admits.
At the tender age of 21, Patrick married his 48-year-old manager, Rocky Parker.
It lasted seven years.
Talking about the age difference he admits: “It was ridiculous, nightmare. I was a little bit lost”.
After the dissolution of this first marriage, Patrick’s career and self-esteem took a tumble.
With 1980’s hits such as Can’t Buy Me Love and Loverboy under his belt, the hot star believed the hype that he was destined for big things, but the roles soon started to dry up.
“My 30s were incredibly difficult”, he confesses.
“I was just ‘that guy who was in that ’80s movie”.
As a sufferer of dyslexia, learning pages of scripts was difficult, and with each rejection the actor was getting more disheartened.
“There was a 10-year period where I had to mesmerize pages of dialogue and invest so much of my time and energy into every audition, going in knowing that I wouldn’t get it”, he recalls.
“When Grey’s Anatomy came up, I was at breaking point, thinking ‘I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep auditioning’.”
Then he won the starring role as Dr Derek Shepherd, winning over the hearts of millions of women.
“Everyday I wake up and I can’t believe it. It has been a long wait to get to this point, I really appreciate it,” he says. “I’m so lucky. Very few guys get a shot in their late 30s. It’s funny – I’m a hunky guy now. How did that happen?”
The wise star understands the benefits and drawbacks that come with finding fame later in life.
“I think if I was 18 years old going through what I’m going through right now I’d be sabotaging myself left and right, but now I’ve a family which keeps me grounded,” he says.
“A lot of young Hollywood stars crash and burn because there is no one to keep them in check, and they have no life experience to go ‘hey, this is a moment in time, it’s going to go away, I better make the most of it”.
But does his hectic schedule mean missing out on family time with daughter Tallulah (6) and one-year-old twin boys Darby and Sullivan..
“Do you sacrifice now so you can have a lot of time later? So you can have the financial stability to go, ‘You know what? I’m home now. I’m going to take you to football or ballet. I’ll be there, I’ll watch you’. I guess that’s the dream that everyone wants. Success is how much free time you have”.
Patrick’s own father, Irish-American jockey William Dempsey, was very present in his childhood having retired when Patrick was a boy.
“He was always around when I was a kid, and he was the coach of the baseball team. He’d go skiing with me and he was always extremely supportive”, remembers Patrick.
For now, the star is contracted to Grey’s Anatomy for another two years: ” I just hope the stories stay fresh and allow the characters to grow. It’s nice having a job like that because I know what I’m doing, plus it’s a pension”, he says.
But eventually Patrick would like to leave L.A for a quieter family life: “I would love to move to a small town. I grew up in the country and could spend hours playing in the woods or riding a bicycle down a country road, not worrying about anything. I want to allow my child to be a child,” he says.
