Why We're Worried About Priscilla Presley

Priscilla Beaulieu was just 14 years old when she caught the eye of Elvis Presley when the legendary singer was stationed in Germany while serving in the U.S. Army. They began a romance that continued throughout her teenage years when she moved into Graceland after he completed his mandatory military service. They eventually married, welcoming daughter Lisa Marie Presley before divorcing just a few years later. Rather than fade away and recede from the spotlight, Priscilla Presley went on to establish herself as a successful actor, appearing in nearly 150 episodes of the TV hit "Dallas" and starring alongside Leslie Nielsen in "The Naked Gun" and its sequels. 

More recently, Presley has returned to the forefront of pop culture thanks to a series of projects exhuming her fascinating past. Those include Baz Luhrmann's Oscar-winning 2022 biopic "Elvis," and director Sofia Coppola's 2023 film "Priscilla," telling the story of her romance and marriage to the King of Rock 'n' Roll from her perspective (using her memoir "Elvis and Me" as source material). 

In the midst of all this media attention, Presley has endured some terrible tragedies in her personal life, experiencing some truly heartbreaking situations that would leave even the strongest person devastated. To find out more, keep reading to discover why we're worried about Priscilla Presley.

Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley got married on May 1, 1967, the culmination of a controversial courtship that began when she was just 14. On their wedding day, the bride was 21, and the groom 32. The marriage was a rocky one, and the couple separated in 1972. The divorce was finalized the following year. Four years later, in August 1977, Elvis died of cardiac arrhythmia at the age of 42.

After her ex's death, Presley never remarried. While he was still alive, she refused to even contemplate walking down the aisle again. "I just don't think that he could handle that," she said during a November 2023 Q&A in Las Vegas, as reported by People. After the death of her ex-husband, Presley would seemingly no longer need to worry about the impact of remarrying. However, even though she had several relationships over the years — the longest of these was with director Marco Garibaldi, with whom she lived for more than 20 years and shares a son — she never did tie the knot again.

The reason she never wed again, she explained, was simply that her first husband was an impossible act to follow. "To be honest with you, I never wanted to marry after him. I never had any desire," she said. "No one could ever match [Elvis]."

During their brief marriage, Elvis and Priscilla Presley had one child together, daughter Lisa Marie Presley. They never had another — although that wasn't her choice. "Elvis felt he had a very busy schedule and he did have a bit of guilt that he wasn't around that much when Lisa was younger," she said during a Las Vegas Q&A (via People). 

According to Presley, her late ex-husband's decision was a pragmatic one. "With his scheduling and his touring, he just felt he wasn't around enough to give a lot of attention to having another child," she explained. Despite the demands placed on his time, the couple's daughter recalled that when Elvis was around, he reveled in fatherhood. "It was always a lot of fun," Lisa Marie told Daily Express of what it was like spending time with her dad. "There is not one bad memory. There was always a lot of energy and life in the house. He was very mischievous." 

In addition to Lisa Marie, Priscilla is also the mother of Navarone Garibaldi, who was born in 1987. As Garibaldi told People, his mother felt restricted during her relationship with his father, Marco Garibaldi, who refused to allow Elvis Presley's music to be played in their home. "I think my dad had a bit of a complex about it," Garibaldi said of his father. "It wasn't until after he left that my mom started playing his music again freely."

Priscilla Presley may have divorced Elvis Presley, but she's admitted that she's never found anyone who could ever replace him. "He was the love of my life," she told reporters while promoting "Priscilla" at the Venice International Film Festival (as reported by Reuters), "but it was the lifestyle that was so difficult for me."

In a 2023 interview with The Times, Presley discussed what it was like for her to return to Graceland. Even though it had been more than 45 years since her ex's death, she admitted she could still detect his spirit in the Memphis mansion. She also confirmed that the King of Rock 'n' Roll has never been far from her thoughts over all those decades. "To be honest, there isn't a day [that] goes by when I don't think of him," she said. "Just last week I saw a shirt and I could almost hear myself saying, 'Elvis would love that. Should I get it for him?'"

Ultimately, Presley has come to realize that her marriage was doomed from the beginning, and there was nothing she could have done to change things. "As much as he wanted to be married and have a family, I don't know if he was ever cut to be married because I don't think he could ever be faithful to one woman," she said during an interview with Australia's "Sunday News."

Tragedy struck Priscilla Presley's family in the summer of 2020. That was when her grandson, Benjamin Keough — son of daughter Lisa Marie Presley and former husband Danny Keough — took his own life. He was just 27 at the time of his death.

Presley responded in a heartfelt Facebook post, in which she laid out the grief she was experiencing about the loss of her grandson. "These are some of the darkest days of my family's life," she wrote. "The shock of losing Ben has been devastating. Trying to put all the pieces together of all the possible whys has penetrated my soul. Each day I wake up I pray it will get better," she posted.

As hard as she was hit, however, she knew that whatever degree of sorrow she was experiencing was a fraction of what her late grandson's parents were going through. "Then, I think of my daughter and the pain she is going through as she was a doting mother," she continued. "Ben's father, Danny [Keough], who is completely lost, as Ben was his only son." That pain was still lingering three years later when Presley took to Instagram to share a tribute to her late grandson on the third anniversary of his death. "Needless to say, this has been a very solemn day for me — the anniversary of the passing of my sweet grandson Ben," she wrote. "Words cannot express how much you are missed."

When "Elvis" hit theaters in 2022, it was among the year's most acclaimed films, nominated for eight Oscars (ultimately winning none), including best picture and best actor, for star Austin Butler in the title role. The following year, "Priscilla" premiered, based on Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir "Elvis and Me." 

Long before the movie's debut, Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, took issue with the script. The news didn't emerge until late 2023 when Variety obtained emails that Lisa Marie had sent "Priscilla" director Sofia Coppola in September of 2022. In the emails, she expressed her outrage over the way her father was depicted.

"My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative," Lisa Marie wrote, insisting that Coppola twisted what her mother had written in her book. "As his daughter, I don't read this and see any of my father in this character," she continued. "I don't read this and see my mother's perspective of my father. I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don't understand why?" In addition, Lisa Marie threatened that she would publicly trash the film when it came out if Coppola did not adequately address her concerns. "I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother, and this film publicly," she added.

Priscilla Presley was not only the subject of "Priscilla" and the author of the book upon which it was based, but she also served as one of the movie's producers. Despite her intimate involvement with the picture, she still found the experience of watching that period of her life play out in front of her eyes, on the big screen, to be discomfiting. 

Speaking during a press conference for "Priscilla" at the Venice International Film Festival, reported Variety, Presley opened up about what it had been like to see director Sofia Coppola's finished film and relive her relationship with her late ex-husband. "It's very difficult to sit and watch a film about you, about your life, about your love," she said, her eyes reportedly glistening with tears as she spoke.

Still, Presley was insistent that Coppola had told her story the way that she had always wanted it to be told. "Sofia did an amazing job," Presley declared. "She did her homework, we spoke a couple of times and I really put everything out for her that I could."

Tragedy again struck in January 2023 when Lisa Marie Presley died unexpectedly at the age of 54 from a bowel obstruction brought on as a complication from bariatric surgery she'd undergone years earlier. Her death not only shocked the world — it left her mother stunned and shattered. Speaking at her daughter's memorial service, Priscilla Presley offered some brief remarks to eulogize her daughter. "Our heart is broken," she said, as reported by CNN. "Lisa, we all love you."

The pain of losing her only daughter hasn't dissipated over time. During the Q&A in Las Vegas in November of that year to promote the "Priscilla" biopic, Presley admitted she was still grieving all those months later. "It's not easy. It still isn't easy," she said of losing her daughter, as reported by People. "It's still unbelievable, and you have to get yourself through it."

That same month, she also addressed her daughter's death during a television interview with "Piers Morgan Uncensored," admitting that the last few years had been the most difficult in her life. "It was unbearable," she said. "I lost my mother, I lost my grandson, and I lost my daughter ... It's still shocking that we don't have her."

As time passed after the death of daughter Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley began to open up about the final time they'd seen each other — not, of course, knowing that it would be the last time they would get to spend together. 

During that November 2023 interview with "Piers Morgan Uncensored," she shared her recollection of the final night they spent with one another while attending the Golden Globe Awards — just two days before her death. "She didn't look well that night, and I was concerned," Priscilla said of Lisa Marie, who was hospitalized for what had initially appeared to be cardiac arrest. As Presley recalled, while attending the Globes, her daughter asked a friend if he could help support her while she walked, leading her to wonder if there was something wrong. "Her heels were high, but she had worn them before, and I thought, 'Is she okay?' She didn't really look that okay, she looked very frail," Presley recalled.

Presley also remembered that her daughter had complained of stomach pain before they each went to their homes. Then, they said goodnight — not knowing it would be their final farewell. "Then I hugged her, and she went her way, and I went mine," Presley remembered, via Vanity Fair, "and that hug was the last hug I gave her."

Lisa Marie Presley's will placed her estate in the hands of her daughter, actor Riley Keough (best known for the title role in the Amazon Prime Video TV series "Daisy Jones and the Six"). Within days, Priscilla Presley contested the will, claiming that her daughter's signature wasn't valid on a 2016 amendment that had removed her as one of the trustees of the estate. With Keough as sole trustee, Presley took her granddaughter to court, alleging she was never informed about her removal as co-trustee in that amendment.

Amid the fallout of the lawsuit were allegations of a fraught relationship between Presley and her daughter, with claims that Keough was forced to act as an intermediary between them. "Riley knew there was contention with her mom and grandmother and has always tried to be a bridge between them," a source told Us Weekly. "She's still doing this even after her mother's death, but still honoring her mother's wishes."

After a few months of legal wrangling and scandalous headlines, Presley and her granddaughter reached an agreement. According to Rolling Stone, the terms of the settlement included Keough paying her grandmother $1 million in addition to $100,000 per year for 10 years (or until she died). After a judge had approved the settlement agreement, Presley's attorney, Ronson J. Shamoun, spoke to reporters outside the courtroom. "Everyone is happy, unified, together and excited for the future," he said, as reported by CNN.

Having sued her granddaughter over control of her late daughter's estate, where did that leave the relationship between Priscilla Presley and Riley Keough after settling their legal battle — particularly after it played out publicly in the press over the course of several seemingly fraught months? 

Apparently, things were just fine. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Keough downplayed their courtroom squabble. "Things with Grandma will be happy. They've never not been happy," she said. "There was a bit of upheaval, but now everything's going to be how it was." According to Keough, the lawsuit was a blip in an otherwise long and loving bond between grandmother and granddaughter. "None of that stuff has really ever been a part of our relationship prior," Keough said of the lawsuit after it had been settled. "She's just been my grandma."

Presley echoed her granddaughter's sentiments in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "Riley and I are on good terms. We were never not on good terms. That was all publicity," Presley said, revealing that she and Keough would be having dinner together that very evening. Presley was also adamant that despite their opposition in the courtroom, she was there to support her granddaughter as she continued to grieve the loss of her mother. "I'm there for her," Presley insisted. "She knows that. She wants me there for her to help her."

When Priscilla Presley's lawsuit against granddaughter Riley Keough was settled, one of the terms of the agreement regarded plans for her burial. "Riley agrees to allow Priscilla to be buried upon her death in the Meditation Garden of Graceland," read the settlement obtained by Rolling Stone. "The burial location will be at the location closest to Elvis Presley without moving any existing gravesite."

Beyond the million-dollar lump sum payout and annual fee, Presley's desire to be laid to rest at Graceland was of key importance to Presley when negotiating the settlement. During her November 2023 interview with "Piers Morgan Uncensored," she confirmed her desire to be buried at Graceland. "My feelings [about being buried at Graceland] are great. That's, you know, what I want and wanted," she said, confirming her desire that her final resting place be next to her husband's grave. 

However, Presley probably won't be buried right next to her ex-husband due to the settlement agreement dictating that no gravesites be moved; because Elvis' grave is situated between those of his grandmother, Minnie, and father, Vernon, it appears unlikely her grave will be directly next to that of Elvis.