- Lisa Marie Presley wrote in her posthumous memoir that she felt unwanted by her mom, Priscilla Presley.
- Lisa Marie said that Priscilla “didn’t have great maternal instincts.”
- Their relationship was tense after Elvis Presley died in 1977.
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Lisa Marie Presley wrote in a new posthumous memoir about feeling unwanted by her mom, Priscilla Presley.
Lisa Marie, who died in 2023, wrote about their strained relationship in “From Here to the Great Unknown,” released Tuesday. The memoir was cowritten by her daughter, Riley Keough.
In her memoir, Lisa Marie said that her mom “thought about trying to fall off her horse to cause a miscarriage.”
“She didn’t want to gain pregnancy weight,” Lisa Marie wrote. “She thought that wouldn’t be a good look for her as Elvis’ wife. There were so many women after him, all of them beautiful. She wanted his undivided attention.”
Lisa Marie continued: “She was so upset that she was pregnant that initially she’d only eat apples and eggs and never gained much weight. I was a pain in her ass immediately and I always felt she didn’t want me.”
Priscilla and Elvis Presley got married in 1967 and welcomed their first and only child together, daughter Lisa Marie, the following year. Priscilla was 22 when she gave birth.
Priscilla went through with the pregnancy, but Lisa Marie said that her mom “didn’t have great maternal instincts.”
“That might be what’s wrong with me,” Lisa Marie said.
Priscilla Presley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lisa Marie said after Elvis died, she felt ‘stuck’ with her mother
Priscilla and Elvis broke up when Lisa Marie was 4 years old. In her memoir, Lisa Marie wrote that her parents “did a fantastic job maintaining a united front and a real friendship bond” afterward.
“There was still a lot of love between them, and they really put on a good front for me,” she said. “I was very lucky.”
Lisa Marie said that, in retrospect, one thing she was certain of as a child was that she was loved by her dad. After Elvis’ death in 1977, when Lisa Marie was 9 years old, Priscilla went to Graceland to be with her — which the child dreaded.
“I heard my mother was coming for me. That was the worst. It felt like an invasion — Graceland was my place with my dad, and I didn’t want her there,” Lisa Marie said. “She was going to wreck the whole vibe.”
Lisa Marie added she felt “stuck” with her mom after Elvis’ death. Wheras Elvis spoiled Lisa, Priscilla was strict with her. Lisa Marie also said that her mom tried her best as a parent, especially when she went through a rebellious phase.
“She was trying to figure things out and grow up, too, and I gave her a genuinely hard time,” Lisa Marie said.
Keough writes that Lisa Marie and Priscilla’s relationship improved later in life
Although Priscilla and Lisa Marie weren’t particularly close, Keough said that the duo put aside their past “so that Priscilla could be a grandmother for us kids.”
Keough said that before Lisa Marie’s 2006 marriage to Michael Lockwood, which lasted 10 years, her mom “reassessed” her relationship with Priscilla, and they “grew closer.” Lisa even wrote the 2005 song “Raven” in honor of Priscilla.
“My mom wanted to forgive her,” Keough wrote. “And she wanted to own her part in their difficult relationship.”
Riley said Lisa and Priscilla were even “thick as thieves for a minute.”
“They were always giggling and laughing and having fun and getting drunk together, constantly up to no good,” Riley said.
Following Lisa Marie’s death in January 2023, her family became embroiled in a legal battle over Graceland, the estate she solely inherited from Elvis on her 25th birthday in 1993.
Initially, Riley and her half-sisters Harper and Finley Lockwood inherited the estate. A court filing said that in 2016, Lisa Marie had removed Priscilla and her former business manager, Barry Siegel, as co-trustees of her living trust. They were replaced by Riley and her brother Benjamin Keough, who died by suicide in 2020. Priscilla then filed a petition questioning “the authenticity and validity” of the amendment to the trust.
A settlement agreement between Priscilla and Riley was reached later that year. By January 2024, Priscilla and Riley put this legal history aside to attend the Emmys together, where Riley was nominated for outstanding actress in a limited series or a movie for her role in “Daisy Jones & the Six.”
Riley also took on the responsibility of completing Lisa Marie’s book after she died. According to Page Six, Lisa Marie’s book deal was estimated to be between $3 and 4 million. Since its release earlier this week, “From Here to the Great Unknown” has become an Amazon bestseller and Oprah Winfrey’s latest selection for her book club.