Until age 12, Patrick Dempsey lived in Turner, Maine, a tiny town in the Lewiston-Auburn metro area, and after that, in the even smaller Buckfield. Dempsey has said he bicycled miles when he needed to get to the nearest resources, but even the area’s biggest town, Lewiston, lacks train access — the existing station was built in 1874 and is a historical landmark, but has not been in use for a long time — so he rarely traveled far. School was always difficult for Dempsey, who was placed in special education courses because of an undiagnosed learning disorder. The star attended Leavitt Area High School, but struggled to the point where he dropped out before getting his degree. “I was diagnosed with dyslexia much later,” he told Fatherly. “So anything to do with school was very painful, very hard to deal with. But you can get your identity and self-esteem through sport, and that’s how I thrived.”
Read Related Also: Jason Kelce addresses Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift dating rumors: ‘Trav is having fun’
As a youngster, Dempsey spent a lot of his time either skiing or exploring the woods, and that way of life is clearly still appealing to the actor, who maintains a home very close to where he was raised. “Now that I have a place in southern Maine, I get to go back and connect to the land. I have a place to center and reflect on where I’ve come from and where I’m going. It brings up a lot of emotion and memories,” he explained to Maine Magazine. Unsurprisingly, Dempsey has said he hopes to retire somewhere in Maine or the English countryside.
