Priscilla Presley tells all on abortion, Elvis ‘forcing’ himself on her and why she never trusted Michael Jackson
Priscilla Presley opens up about some shocking moments from her life in her new memoir, “Softly, As I Leave You,” which hits shelves on Tuesday. The book dives deep into her marriage to Elvis Presley and the tough road raising their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, who passed away in January 2023 at age 54.
One of the biggest revelations? Elvis suggested Priscilla get an abortion when she got pregnant with Lisa Marie just weeks after their 1967 wedding. The couple had met years earlier in Germany—Priscilla was only 14, and Elvis was 24, serving in the U.S. Army. They tied the knot in Las Vegas on May 1, 1967, and she conceived on their wedding night.
“I was so excited at first,” Priscilla writes. But reality hit hard. “Neither Elvis nor I was ready for a child.” They worried quietly for weeks. Elvis finally asked if she wanted to end the pregnancy, saying he’d support her choice. Priscilla burst into tears and said no—this was their baby. When Lisa Marie arrived in February 1968, both parents fell head over heels for her.
Life with Elvis wasn’t easy. Priscilla left him in 1972 when Lisa Marie was 4, after starting an affair with her karate instructor, Mike Stone. Elvis, who often cheated himself, reacted badly. He even asked his friend Joe Esposito to hire a hit man for Stone but backed off. Priscilla later shared a painful detail: Elvis “forced” himself on her once, mimicking a karate move, which left her with bad memories of their last intimate moment.
Raising Lisa Marie proved just as challenging. Priscilla calls her daughter a “conundrum—complicated and challenging,” a free spirit like her dad. As Elvis’s kid, Lisa Marie leaned into her famous last name, dubbing herself “Lisa Marie F—ing Presley.” It thrilled and haunted her.
Lisa Marie struggled early on. She didn’t fit in at school and snapped at bullies, “I’m Lisa Presley. My father’s Elvis Presley… So watch it!” By her teens, boys obsessed her. At 14, she accused Priscilla’s then-boyfriend, actor Michael Edwards, of lifting her bed covers to look at her. Priscilla kicked him out, but years later, Edwards wrote about a “sexual obsession” with Lisa Marie in his own book. Priscilla was stunned when Lisa Marie claimed in her posthumous memoir that he molested her—something Lisa never told her mom back then. Edwards denies it, calling it a fabrication to sell books. Priscilla writes she wishes they could have talked it out before Lisa Marie’s death: “I know I will never have closure.”
Priscilla introduced Lisa Marie to the Church of Scientology, but admits she was naive about it. Lisa Marie married young—Danny Keough at 20 in 1988—and had two kids, Riley Keough and Benjamin Storm Keough. Priscilla was “appalled” when Lisa Marie wed Michael Jackson in 1994, right after his child molestation accusations. Priscilla believes Jackson used the marriage for good PR, to seem like a “desirable heterosexual man.” The union lasted less than two years; they divorced in 1996. Jackson died in 2009.
Money troubles hit Lisa Marie hard. At 25, she inherited a chunk of Elvis’s estate, including Graceland in Memphis, but by 2005, she sold off 85% of her share because she was broke.
Her third marriage to guitarist Michael Lockwood in 2006 brought twin daughters, Harper and Finley, in 2008. But painkillers after birth sparked an opioid addiction, mirroring Elvis’s own struggles. Things worsened—by 2014, she mixed opioids, cocaine, and alcohol, hitting 80 pills a day. Rehab followed, and the marriage ended in a messy 2016 divorce. Court papers exposed her drug use, shocking Priscilla. She temporarily took custody of the twins but handed them back after a year. Lisa Marie fought hard for primary custody and won, though Lockwood got visitation.
Family tragedies piled up. Priscilla had a son, Navarone Garibaldi, with her ex Marco Garibaldi when Lisa Marie was 19. But in 2020, Lisa Marie’s son Benjamin died by suicide at 27, devastating her. Priscilla says it marked “the beginning of the end.”
At the 2023 Golden Globes, celebrating the Oscar-nominated Elvis movie, Lisa Marie could barely walk and needed help from family friend Jerry Schilling. She complained of stomach pain to Priscilla and left early. Two days later, ex-husband Danny Keough found her unconscious. She had suffered a cardiac arrest from a bowel obstruction linked to past bariatric surgery. Priscilla made the heartbreaking call to take her off life support. “I knew from the first moment I walked into Lisa’s hospital room that she was gone,” she writes.
Through it all, Priscilla mourns the daughter she loved fiercely. “My little wild child, I love you forever.” The memoir paints a raw picture of fame’s toll on the Presley family, from Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley’s rocky romance to Lisa Marie Presley’s battles with addiction, high-profile marriages, and loss.
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