In her effort to revisit the past, Priscilla Presley (80) has released with Mary Jane Ross Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, a continuation of her successful 1985 biography Elvis and Me. Despite the countless writings since the death of the king of rock in 1977, this new volume provides intimate details that still manage to surprise the reader.
Tragedy struck Priscilla again with the death of her daughter Lisa Marie on January 12, 2023. A devastating blow added to the suicide of her grandson Benjamin in 2020, at only 27 years old. As she recounts, Lisa Marie suffered from an intestinal obstruction at home as a consequence of bariatric surgery - a surgical procedure for obese individuals - performed years earlier. She was taken to a hospital in Calabasas, where she was put on life support. Her mother and her first husband, Danny Keough - father of Riley, now 36 years old - stayed by her side, caressing her face. Hours later, Priscilla made a heartbreaking decision: "Disconnect her, doctor." Shortly after, Lisa Marie lost consciousness, and her cousin Ivy held her in her arms. "It was the second saddest day of my life after Elvis's death," she confesses.
The relationship between mother and daughter was marked by clashes and prolonged silences. Priscilla states that Lisa Marie was self-destructing: "Her drug consumption rose to 80 pills a day. She lived in a whirlwind of emotions fueled by drugs with no relief in sight." The distance worsened during Lisa Marie's divorce from her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood. The singer asked her mother to sign a statement accusing him of being unfit for the custody of their twins, Harper Vivienne and Finley Aaron, now 16 years old. Priscilla refused: "I told her I couldn't sign, it would be perjury." That was seen by Lisa as an irreparable betrayal. Although they maintained some contact, they never fully reconciled. "I knew with a stab in the heart that she would never completely forgive me. And she never did."
The book dedicates a special chapter to Lisa Marie's marriage to Michael Jackson in 1994, a union that shocked the world. "I was horrified - writes Priscilla-. Deep down, I knew Michael wasn't marrying Lisa Marie; he was marrying the Presley dynasty. He was a manipulative man, with his sights set on her long before she noticed. The childlike innocence he projected was part of his public facade." At that time, Jackson was facing serious allegations of child sexual abuse. For Priscilla, that marriage was an attempt to clean up his image. During the two years of their union, she avoided interacting with him. "My only real contact with him was at an Elvis event in Memphis. He walked into the room where I was talking with my daughter, smiled, and left immediately. That was my entire interaction with my son-in-law."
Another significant aspect of the book is the management of Graceland. Thanks to Priscilla, the legendary mansion in Memphis has become the second most profitable private residence in the United States, generating millions in visits and memories. However, it also portrays the dark side of Elvis: an unfaithful, controlling, and chauvinistic man who dictated how she should dress and style her hair. Although he loved his daughter, changing a diaper was unthinkable for him, and he disliked seeing her get messy with food.
The narrative reaches one of its most tense moments when Priscilla, tired of infidelities, decided to have an affair with Mike Stone, her karate instructor. Elvis's reaction was explosive: "He found it unbearable to think that I was with another man. In the weeks following my departure, he told the guys that Mike had to die. He even asked Joe Esposito, his tour manager, to find a hitman." According to her, Esposito was part of the so-called Memphis Mafia, the male entourage surrounding the star.
After seven years of marriage, Elvis and Priscilla separated in 1972, and the divorce was finalized in October 1973. Once single again, the actress began a relationship with lawyer Robert Kardashian, father of Kim and the rest of the clan. She confesses that she was even in bed with him when the phone rang: it was Elvis. She didn't say a word. "He would have gone crazy, maybe literally, if he had known that Robert was in my room. Elvis always carried a loaded gun, sometimes more than one."
Today, after so many losses, Priscilla finds solace in her great-granddaughter Tupelo Storm, Riley Keough's daughter. At just three years old, the little one has become her greatest joy and a symbol of continuity for a lineage marked by music, tragedy, and resilience.