Priscilla Presley remembers late daughter Lisa Marie Presley in her newly launched memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis.
Priscilla, 80, was married to the late Elvis Prelsey from 1967 to 1973. Within the wake of their public divorce, they remained close until his death at age 42 in 1977. All through their extremely publicized marriage, the previous couple welcomed daughter Lisa Marie in February 1968.
“Elevating my daughter was a problem for each of us. She was strong-willed from the start,” Priscilla wrote within the e book, revealed on Tuesday, September 23. “Like her dad, she simply got here that method. Lisa had a thoughts of her personal, and being Elvis’s daughter solely bolstered it.”
Lisa Marie died at age 54 in January 2023 as the results of a cardiac arrest brought on by a small bowel obstruction.
Priscilla wrote that whereas the “harmful complication” is in the end what brought on her daughter’s demise, her “coronary heart had actually stopped beating” the day her son, Benjamin Keough, died by suicide at age 27 in July 2020.
“I prefer to consider that her son and her father have been there to see her over,” Priscilla wrote of her daughter’s demise. “I must consider that my woman shouldn’t be alone.”
Hold scrolling to learn Priscilla’ revelations about Lisa Marie from Softly, As I Go away You:
The first Time Lisa Marie Noticed Elvis Carry out
Lisa Marie noticed her father carry out in Las Vegas shortly after she turned 5.
“Her eyes grew massive as she noticed her daddy, resplendent in his bejeweled costume, commanding the stage. She was rapt as he started to sing, and he or she checked out me sometimes with surprise,” she wrote. “That was the evening Lisa Marie found that her father was the King. It was additionally the evening she started to appreciate she was the little princess. Earlier than, she had simply been Lisa. Now she was Elvis Presley’s daughter. It was an id that each enabled and haunted her for the remainder of her life.”
Inside Lisa Marie’s Marriage to Michael Jackson
Priscilla wrote that she was “appalled” by her daughter’s temporary marriage to late singer Jackson in the mid-1990s.
“I knew in my bones that Michael wasn’t marrying Lisa Marie; he was marrying the Presley dynasty,” she claimed. “I didn’t consider he beloved her. He married her at a time when he desperately wanted good publicity that depicted him as a fascinating heterosexual man.”
She wrote that Lisa Marie and Jackson’s relationship was “pure gold” for his image on the time. Priscilla claimed that Jackson “began reaching out” to Lisa Maria when “the kid abuse expenses” towards him grew to become public information. (Jackson was arrested and charged with little one molestation in 2003, however was discovered not responsible in 2005.)
“I believe that’s how he hooked her to start with. She felt sorry for him, and naturally, she believed in his innocence,” Priscilla wrote. “Michael was a manipulative man, and I believe he had his sights set on her lengthy earlier than she realized it.”
Priscilla mentioned her relationship along with her former son-in-law was “weird” the entire time he was with Lisa Marie. Jackson allegedly “needed nothing to do” with Priscilla.
“He continued to go to nice lengths to keep away from me,” she recalled, noting that the “solely precise contact” they ever had was a short interplay at an Elvis tribute live performance in Memphis throughout Jackson’s marriage to Lisa Marie.
“He mentioned nothing to me on the best way to the present. Lisa and I have been showing within the present, so there was no alternative to speak to him once we arrived,” she wrote. “Early the subsequent morning, he was gone. That was the sum complete of my direct interactions with my son-in-law through the marriage.”
Lisa Marie’s Marriage to Nicolas Cage Was Drama
Whereas Priscilla “preferred” Cage for her daughter, their relationship was “like watching a cleaning soap opera,” she wrote. (Lisa Marie and Cage have been briefly married in 2002.)
“They weren’t solely romantically passionate but in addition passionate, interval,” she recalled. “They screamed they usually yelled, they threw issues, and typically they broke issues. They broke up. And the subsequent day, or fairly near it, they made up. Lisa and Nick broke up and made up so many occasions, it was dizzying.”
Priscilla admitted she had “little hope” that they’d keep collectively after getting married. “I did my finest to be optimistic,” she wrote, however after three months they separated.
“Although their parting was tumultuous and laborious on each of them, they acquired previous the preliminary trauma and remained pals,” Priscilla defined. “They have been higher off as pals. I believe they each gained a bit knowledge from the connection.”
The 2023 Golden Globes
The awards present was Lisa Marie’s remaining public look previous to her demise.
“I knew one thing was mistaken. Her unfastened black costume had lengthy sleeves and a halter collar that closed in entrance of her throat, however the costume didn’t camouflage her thinness,” Priscilla recalled, noting that her daughter was “a bit out of it” the whole evening. Whereas they’d plans to exit after the present, Lisa Marie went house due to abdomen ache.
Without end modified. Lisa Marie Presley‘s family members have opened up about working by their grief following her demise at age 54. “To YOU, I’m actually overwhelmed along with your phrases, your prayers, your love and your help,” the singer’s mom, Priscilla Presley, wrote through Twitter in January 2023. “Thanks from the underside of my coronary heart […]
“I didn’t understand it was the final hug,” she wrote. “When she referred to as to say she was safely house, I might have stayed on the road if I’d identified it was the final time I’d hear her voice. However I didn’t know.”
The Day Priscilla Died
Priscilla made the choice within the hospital to take away Lisa Marie from all the machines that have been protecting her alive after docs have been capable of restart her coronary heart.
“I considered my woman, my wild, rebellious, passionate woman, mendacity in a vegetative state for the remainder of her life,” she wrote. “I mentioned what I needed to. ‘Take her off the machine, Physician.’ My voice was barely above a whisper.”
