LIFE Without My Daughter
TRAGEDY BROUGHT HER TO HER KNEES, BUT AFTER MAKING PEACE WITH THE PAST, SHE’S LOOKING FORWARD
After the Golden Globe Awards in January, Lisa Marie Presley suggest to her mom, Priscilla, that they head to Chateau Marmont for a nightcap. “She didn’t look well that night,” recalled Priscilla Presley, who said they both tripped in their high heels and laughed about it while entering the famed LA hotel. “We went and sat down, and she said, ‘Mom, I have to go, my stomach really hurts.’”
Priscilla hugged her daughter goodbye, not realizing it would be the last time.
Two days later, Lisa Marie died at age 54 of cardiac arrest triggered by a bowel obstruction. “It was unbearable,” Priscilla told journalist Piers Morgan. “It’s like a large part of your life is taken away.”
A FAMILY IN PAIN
Lisa Marie’s passing is only the most recent tragedy affecting Priscilla. In July 2020, Lisa Marie’s son, Benjamin, committed suicide at age 27. A little over a year later, Priscilla lost her mother, Anna, at age 95. “You just don’t know what’s going to come at you, you know?” said Priscilla, 78, whose 1985 biography Elvis & Me was recently turned into a film. “It was unbearable. I lost my mother, I lost my grandson and I lost my daughter. It’s still shocking that we don’t have her.”
The legal battle over Lisa Marie’s will has been settled, though. Priscilla will become a paid advisor to her granddaughter Riley Keough, 35, on matters involving Lisa Marie’s trust. “Riley and I have always been close,” said Priscilla, who has also requested to be buried at Graceland near Lisa Marie and Elvis. “I miss [Elvis] very much. I miss his words, I miss his love, I miss his laugh, I miss his energy, I miss the fun times,” Priscilla said. “You don’t really realize the fun times that you’re having until you go back and look at your albums and your pictures and you go, ‘Oh my God, we had so much fun, we did so much.’ It’s still there.”