CLOSER TO HOME

The star who keeps Elvis’ legacy alive found the perfect refuge in a Beverly Hills villa

Priscilla Presley tours Closer through her beautiful abode in Beverly Hills.

For Priscilla Presley, finding a place to live near her iconic ex-husband after their 1973 divorce was of paramount importance. When not at Graceland in Memphis, Tenn., “Elvis stayed in the Holmby Hills [Calif.] home I found for us,” Priscilla, 72, tells Closer. “We were very, very close, and I wanted to make sure his house was near to our daughter, Lisa Marie.” The Beverly Hills villa Priscilla found was perfect. “And it’s a bit secluded with the gates, so you can’t see in. It was a sanctuary for me.”

Over the past 45 years, the Italian-style villa has remained an ideal refuge for Priscilla as she evolved from single mom to

movie star to executive producer of the HBO doc Elvis Presley: The Searcher and “The Wonder of You” Elvis concert series. To give herself even “more privacy” on the nearly 2-acre, treefilled property, in 1992 she hired an Italian architect to help her design a second floor with a library, two bedrooms and a sweeping Italian-tiled staircase with a “European feel.”

The five-bedroom, seven-bath, 7,000-square-foot home is filled with intimate memories of Elvis, Lisa

Marie, 50, and Priscilla’s son, Navarone Garibaldi, 31 (whose dad is her expartner Marco Garibaldi). There are antiques she bought when she was married, a piano her grandchildren like to play and photos of Elvis and her daughter on her mantelpiece.

In quiet moments, Priscilla sits in her lush, candlelit courtyard beside the fireplace she had installed. “When I had more family here, there was a cozy feeling, and that’s why I put ‘Villa Nostra’ [above the fireplace]. It means ‘Our Home’ in Italian,” she says, before adding with a laugh, “It’s not ‘Cosa Nostra,’ the Mafia!”

At an age when many people think about downsizing, that homey feeling keeps Priscilla in Beverly Hills. Says the star, “I settled here, and I can’t move because I have so many memories.”

— Reporting by Ilyssa Panitz

When Priscilla has small gatherings, “We’ll retire to this lounge after dinner.”

Priscilla was an executive producer on Elvis Presley: The Searcher, airing on HBOthrough mid-May. “I like the feel of an Italian villa. It’s very homey and inviting,” Priscilla tells Closer. “I love to dine in the courtyard or just have wine and cheese out there with lots and lots of candles,” Priscillashares.

“When you have a big wall, it’s hard to find something to fill it. I thought the tapestry was beautiful.” A row of antique books sits on top of herhand-carved concrete fireplace.

“I entertained John Travolta, his wife, Kelly [Preston], andmy daughter here two years ago. It was somuch fun!”