Priscilla Presley reveals in an excerpt from her forthcoming memoir Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis that Lisa Marie Presley had already lost the will to live after the death of her son, Benjamin Keough, who died by suicide in 2020 at age 27. Lisa Marie died in January 2023 at age 54 from complications related to weight-loss surgery, according to the account. Priscilla, then 80, made the difficult decision to discontinue life-support hours after Lisa Marie suffered cardiac arrest at her Calabasas, California home. The revelations appear in an early excerpt from the memoir, which is due for release Sept. 23.
Lisa Marie’s struggles extended into her family life. She was a mother to twins Finley and Harper with her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, and to Riley Keough, with Danny Keough, her first husband. The excerpt portrays a woman who had endured profound losses and sought to care for her children as grief mounted. People published an early excerpt from the memoir, including the moment Priscilla describes entering Lisa Marie’s hospital room and observing her daughter connected to a machine that was breathing for her, with a heartbeat but little brain activity. Riley Keough has said that, during the family’s travel to the hospital, she sensed her mother’s spirit as it passed.
“I knew from the first moment I walked into Lisa’s hospital room that 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,” Priscilla writes. The excerpt notes that Riley later told the family she felt her grandmother’s presence as Lisa Marie’s spirit left the room. Priscilla says she faced a stark moment in the hospital when a doctor told her there would be no quality of life for Lisa Marie, leading to the decision to remove life-support.
Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis is set for release next Tuesday, September 23. The book’s early excerpt also recounts the team’s efforts to support Lisa Marie and the family in a time of intense grief, including how Riley Keough perceived her grandmother’s presence during the crisis. The release of the excerpt comes weeks after a separate civil dispute contended Priscilla Presley pulled the plug to gain control of Lisa Marie’s estate and Graceland, a lawsuit that has added another layer of complexity to the Presley family narrative.
The litigation, filed by Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko, alleges Presley leveraged Lisa Marie’s hospitalization to consolidates control of the Promenade Trust and the family’s assets, while claiming Lisa Marie had revoked certain directives that would have kept Priscilla from managing the trust. The suit asserts Lisa Marie’s Advanced Health Care Directive from 2010 stated she wished to prolong life as long as possible and alleges Presley acted within hours of Lisa Marie’s hospital admission, before Riley Keough could reach the scene. It also claims Lisa Marie died from a small bowel obstruction caused by prior weight-loss surgery and contends the family dispute was a vehicle to influence the estate. The suit describes Presley as having asserted control over Graceland and the trust in the wake of Lisa Marie’s death, and it seeks damages tied to alleged financial elder abuse and breaches of contract. Presley’s representatives have denied these claims, calling them meritless and a publicity stunt.
Marty Singer, Presley’s attorney, issued a statement calling the lawsuit a baseless attack on an elderly public figure and saying the claims reflected a prosecutorial stance aimed at tarnishing her reputation. The case has included detailed allegations about the management of Presley’s name, image and likeness, as well as the terms of various business arrangements surrounding the Presley brand. The parties have described the dispute as ongoing, with mediation and court proceedings continuing to unfold. The family’s private life remains under intense public scrutiny as the Elvis Presley legacy continues to draw attention from entertainment outlets and fans alike.