Elvis Presley’s only grandson dead at 27 in apparent suicide
THE only grandson of Elvis Presley has died at the age of 27 in an apparent suicide, it was confirmed yesterday.
Benjamin Keough, the son of Lisa Marie Presley, 52, was found at his mother’s home in Calabasas near Los Angeles with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police sources told TMZ.
LA County Sheriff ’s officers said they received a “rescue response” call early on Sunday morning.
“Upon their arrival, they located the victim suffering from one gunshot wound to the upper torso,” they said. “The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.”
Roger Widynowski, his mother’s manager said that Lisa Marie − Elvis’s only child from his marriage to Priscilla Presley − was “heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated”.
A source close to the family has claimed that Keough had been “struggling” for a long time. Mr Widynowski added: “She adored that boy. He was the love of her life.”
Lisa Marie, who has three daughters, had described Keough’s resemblance to Elvis as “just uncanny.” He was the younger of the two children Lisa Marie had with her first husband, musician Danny Keough.
They divorced in 1994 and she went on to have twin 11-year-old daughters with her fourth husband, producer Michael Lockwood. She was also briefly married to pop star Michael Jackson and actor Nicolas Cage.
Keough signed a $5 million record deal in 2009 when he was a teenager, but his career failed to take off.
“The music will be nothing like Elvis, nothing like him at all,” he told The Daily Telegraph at the time. He rarely made public appearances but did attend the 40th anniversary of Elvis’s death at Graceland, in Memphis in 2017.
Paying tribute, Nancy Sinatra tweeted: “I have known you since before your mama gave birth to you, never dreaming you would have pain like this in your life. I’m so very sorry.”
Musician DJ Ashba, wrote: “This cuts me to the bone. I loved Ben like a brother and always will.”
Elvis Presley died in 1977, aged 42.