Priscilla Presley said the death of her only child, Lisa Marie Presley, was the “second saddest” day of her life, after the death of Elvis Presley, in an interview and excerpt from her forthcoming memoir.
Priscilla, 80, told People that Lisa Marie’s passing in January 2023 was a devastating blow and that “it took a long time to come to terms with the fact that Lisa was gone.” Lisa Marie, 54, died after suffering a small bowel obstruction that developed following bariatric surgery she had undergone years earlier.
According to the memoir excerpt, published ahead of the book’s Sept. 23 release, Lisa Marie’s ex-husband Danny Keough found her unresponsive at her Los Angeles home and called Priscilla to meet them at the hospital. Priscilla said they spent hours at the hospital with Lisa Marie on a ventilator, “waiting, hoping and praying” for a recovery that did not come.
Priscilla recounted a moment when hospital staff restarted Lisa Marie’s heart but advised that there was no guarantee it would continue beating and that her brain activity was minimal. The doctor asked Priscilla what she wanted done. She said she thought about her daughter “lying in a vegetative state for the rest of her life” and made the decision to remove life support. "I said what I had to. 'Take her off the machine, Doctor.' My voice was barely above a whisper," she writes.
Lisa Marie Presley was the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. Elvis Presley died in August 1977 at age 42 of a heart attack. Priscilla’s memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, details her life after the star’s death as well as subsequent family tragedies.
Priscilla also described other losses and challenges in her family. Her grandson Benjamin Keough, the son of Lisa Marie and Danny Keough, died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in July 2020 at age 27. In addition, Priscilla has spoken publicly about helping her son Navarone Garibaldi, 38, through addiction; she said he is now sober and “in a good place.”
The memoir excerpt and interview place Lisa Marie’s death in a longer context of grief for Priscilla, who has publicly reflected on coping with successive losses since the 1970s. Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis is scheduled for release Sept. 23.