Priscilla Presley reveals in an excerpt from her forthcoming memoir that Lisa Marie Presley had already lost the will to live after the suicide of her son Benjamin Keough in 2020. Lisa Marie died in January 2023 at age 54 from complications tied to a weight-loss surgery. In Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, the 80-year-old former wife of Elvis Presley writes that she made the decision to remove Lisa Marie from life support hours after she suffered cardiac arrest at her Calabasas home.
People published an early excerpt in which Priscilla details the moment she walked into Lisa Marie's hospital room and realized she was already gone. 'She was hooked to a machine that was breathing for her, and she had a heartbeat. There was little brain activity. Her spirit, always so vital, wasn’t there,' she writes. The excerpt notes that Lisa Marie's condition followed the pain of losing Benjamin, who Priscilla described as 'the love of her life,' and that Lisa Marie wanted to be with her son during her final days.
Lisa Marie was the mother of twins Finley and Harper, now 16, with her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, and of Riley Keough, 31, with first husband Danny Keough. Priscilla writes that after Benjamin's death she urged Lisa Marie to focus on the twins, and she describes the emotional toll of balancing a large family with the grief of two recent losses. The excerpt notes Riley later described feeling a sense of her grandmother’s presence while en route to the hospital, as the family prepared for a public appearance at the Golden Globes two days before Lisa Marie's death.
In a separate legal matter, Priscilla Presley is named in a high-profile lawsuit filed by Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko, former business partners who allege they were cut out of Lisa Marie's estate and accuse Priscilla of pulling the plug to regain control of the Promenade Trust and Graceland. The suit references Lisa Marie’s 2010 Advanced Health Care Directive, claiming she intended to prolong life, and asserts that Priscilla acted within hours of Lisa Marie's hospital admission, effectively sidelining Riley Keough from the hands of the trust's control. Presley has denied wrongdoing, calling the suit a 'salacious' and meritless attack on her reputation. Her attorney, Marty Singer, has said the claims are false and that the case should be dismissed. The case also references efforts to resolve disputes over the Promenade Trust and the estate and notes that the matter was settled five months later.
The memoir, which appears as the family faces a new round of legal battles intertwined with the Presley legacy, is set to release Sept. 23. It comes amid ongoing disputes over Elvis's estate and the company's governance, including disagreements over how family members participate in Graceland and related business interests. The excerpts have drawn renewed attention to the private grief of the Presley family and the enduring public interest in Elvis's legacy.