Nicolas Cage Pays Tribute To Lisa Marie Presley With Heartbreaking Reference To Her Son

Nicolas Cage, who filed for divorce from Lisa Marie Presley in 2002, still holds a special place in his heart for the late star. Not long after news broke on January 12 that Presley died at 54 following cardiac arrest, as TMZ reported, the actor paid tribute via a statement from his manager.

"This is devastating news. Lisa had the greatest laugh of anyone I ever met," the poignant statement obtained by CNN read in part. "She lit up every room, and I am heartbroken."

However, Cage did not stop there — adding more heartbreak to his message, the actor also referenced Presley's late son, Benjamin Keough, who died by suicide in 2020. At the time of Cage's marriage to Presley, Benjamin was not even a teenager — so one might imagine he has fond memories of him as a boy, which makes the remainder of his statement all that more devastating. 

In the second half of Nicolas Cage's statement given to CNN, he said of Lisa Marie Presley's son, "I find some solace believing she is reunited with her son Benjamin." Of course, everyone knew how much Presley loved her only son — and how she was completely devastated when he died. 

"Navigating through this hideous grief that absolutely destroyed and shattered my heart and my soul into almost nothing has swallowed me whole," she wrote on Instagram in May 2022. Not much else aside from my other 3 children gets my time and attention anymore." Presley was also mom to Riley Keough, as well as twin girls Vivienne Ann and Finley Aaron Love Lockwood.

As for Presley and Cage's romance, the two remained in contact following their split, as Presley told Diane Sawyer for ABC News in 2003. "I like when someone's shaking it up, when they're different," she said of her attraction to Cage. "I don't know why. I'll never know why. But it's just what I get attracted to." No matter the case, it's clear they shared a strong bond.

Though, of course, things didn't work out between Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley, the former was pretty open about the relationship he had to his ex-wife. In a 2003 interview with the late Barbara Walters for ABC, he revealed he met Presley while still legally married to Patricia Arquette, but felt an instant attraction to her. "There's this beautiful girl standing in the middle of the living room wearing this short leather skirt and this fluffy jacket, and she looks up at me with these big, beautiful, soulful eyes that look like they have a sad story to tell, and I just went 'Oh.' I was thunderstruck," he recalled. "We got to talking, we got to know each other, and she's hilarious and she's a real firecracker and she tells it like it is." Though many may not have put the two together, Cage added that the relationship just made sense to him because they both knew what it was like to come from famous families, as his uncle is Francis Ford Coppola. "There was a logic to it, there was a sense to it," he shared.

The duo ended up tying the knot in August 2002, but it was all over by November 2002. The two spent far longer waiting to be divorced than they were married, with things only being finalized in 2004, per People. Legal documents claimed the two "amicably resolved" their relationship.

It's probably safe to say any marriage that only make it three and a half months probably wasn't exactly the most stable before tying the knot — and that was certainly the case for Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley. During a 2003 "ABC News" interview, Presley even confessed that her first engagement ring from Cage (which was reportedly worth a whopping $65,000) ended up in the ocean when they got into an argument on a boat. Though Presley claimed she didn't toss it in the water (like some reports claimed at the time) and Cage didn't throw it either, the ring was never found — despite the couple hiring divers to look for it! — and she ended up getting a bright and shiny new ring from her husband to be.

As for what went wrong here? Presley explained to Playboy in 2003 (via Elvis.com.au), "One pirate shouldn't marry another. We had already broken up and gotten back together twice. We... thought that marriage would make us more secure." She even went into detail about what happened after Cage filed for divorce, claiming the whole thing happened in the heat of the moment after a fight and he later called her wanting her back. "I was like, 'Dude, we can't do the break-up-get-back-together thing. We're married,'" she said. Presley admitted she held a lot of animosity towards Cage for a long time afterward, and wouldn't even speak to him.