Movies

Lisa Marie Presley obituary: ‘I will never take back any part of who I am or where I come from’

January 14, 2023

CNN
—

As the only child of the late Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, singer Lisa Marie Presley spent her life in the spotlight from the start.

And public interest in her life – from her marriages to her private tragedies – never waned until, like her father, she was taken too soon.

Lisa Marie Presley died on Thursday after apparently suffering cardiac arrest. She was 54 years old.

“Priscilla Presley and the Presley family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Lisa Marie,” said a family statement provided to CNN. “They are deeply grateful for everyone’s support, love and prayers, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”

Days before he was hospitalized, Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley attended the Golden Globe Awards in support of Baz Luhrmann’s film ‘Elvis,’ starring actor Austin Butler, who won for his portrayal of the king.

The life of Lisa Marie Presley in pictures

Born at the height of Elvis fame in 1968, Lisa Marie Presley was considered the princess of the man celebrated as “the king of rock ‘n’ roll”.

Elvis and Priscilla Presley separated in 1972 when their daughter was four, and she was only nine when her father died in 1977. He was 42.

Soon she began acting and experimenting with drugs, which led her mother to send her to a series of private schools, including boarding school in Ojai. Lisa Marie Presley noted to the Los Angeles Times in 2003 that as a child she “was kind of a loner, a melancholy, strange child”.

“I had a real self-destruct mode for a while,” she told the publication. “I never really fit in at school. I didn’t really have direction.

She was also the sole heiress to Elvis’ estate, as well as his sprawling Memphis, Tennessee mansion, Graceland. Her father’s powerful and ever-looming legacy, however, did not sway her from her desire to pursue a career in music in her own right.

Lisa Marie Presley launched her career in 2003 with a debut studio album, “To Whom It May Concern,” which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 album chart and was certified gold that summer. She wrote almost all of the lyrics on the album and co-wrote every melody.

At the time, Lisa Marie Presley told Larry King that she had to “park” feelings of pressure and comparison with her legendary singer father.

“If I had thought about that, worried about that, which I had for a long time, I never would have done what was kind of innate in my heart, in my soul,” she said. declared. “So I had to stop worrying about it, it was too intimidating otherwise.”

Also around the same time, Lisa Marie Presley questioned whether her famous name was a hindrance or a help, telling Playboy that she didn’t “have the tabloids sue me every week.”

But, she added, she would “never take back any part of who I am or where I come from.”

“I would never want to be part of anything else,” she said. “I am honored and proud of my family and my father.”

This first disc was followed by two additional albums, “Now What” in 2005 and “Storm & Grace” in 2012.

Along with her musical activities, Lisa Marie Presley was married four times, including to music superstar Michael Jackson and actor Nicolas Cage.

She married musician Danny Keough in 1988, with whom she had a daughter, Riley Keough, and a son, Benjamin Storm Keough.

Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson pose at the

The couple divorced in May 1994 and about three weeks later Lisa Marie Presley married Jackson in a ceremony that made headlines around the world.

She noted Jackson in a 2003 interview with ABC News and Diane Sawyer: “When he wants to lock himself inside you, when he wants to intrigue you or capture you, or you know, whatever he wants to do with you, he can do it .” She added that she “fell into all of this, ‘Poor, sweet, misunderstood, I’m going to save you.’ …I fell in love with him.”

Their marriage ended in January 1996.

Two years later, she married Cage after meeting him at a party, but was only married to him for three months, from August to November 2002. The divorce was finalized in 2004.

Lisa Marie Presley and actor Nicolas Cage in 2001.

Her fourth marriage came in 2006, to her guitarist, music producer and director Michael Lockwood. The couple welcomed Finley twins Aaron Love Lockwood and Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood in 2008. They divorced in 2016.

In 2020, Lisa Marie Presley’s son Benjamin Keough died by suicide at the age of 27. Last July, she marked the second anniversary of Keough’s death on Instagram, sharing a photo of their matching foot tattoos.

Last September, she wrote an essay for National Bereavement Awareness Day, in which she opened up about the loss of her son.

“My life and that of my three daughters as we knew it was completely detonated and destroyed by his death. We live in this every. Alone. day,” she wrote. “Grief is something you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life, despite what some people or our culture would have us believe. You don’t ‘move on’, you don’t ‘move on’. “, period. ”

Presley also said in the essay that she found comfort in the company of people who faced a similar tragedy, adding that her daughters helped keep her feet on the ground.

“I carry on for my daughters,” she wrote. “I continue because my son made it very clear in his final moments that caring for and watching over his little sisters was at the forefront of his mind and his mind. He absolutely adored them and they loved them.

Tributes to Lisa Marie Presley poured in as news of her passing spread.

“This is devastating news. Lisa had the biggest laugh of anyone I’ve ever met. She lit up every room and I’m heartbroken,” Cage said in a statement provided by her manager. Mike Nilon on Thursday “I find some comfort in believing that she is reunited with her son Benjamin.”

On Friday, Luhrmann took to Instagram to pay tribute to Lisa Marie Presley, saying “we will miss your warmth, your smile, your love.”

“Over the past year, the entire ‘Elvis’ movie family and I have felt the privilege of Lisa Marie’s loving embrace. Her sudden and shocking loss has devastated people all over the world,” he said. he writes.

Actor John Travolta wrote on Thursday that he would miss his friend “but I know I will see you again”.

“My love and heart goes out to Riley, Priscilla, Harper and Finley,” he wrote on Instagram.

Actress Leah Remini said she was “heartbroken by the passing of Lisa Marie Presley”, adding that “Lisa didn’t have an easy life, as some might think”.

“May she be at peace, rest with her son and father now,” she wrote on Twitter.

If you don’t know how to perform CPR, watch this

“Lisa Marie’s final resting place will be at Graceland, next to her beloved son Ben,” a family representative said in a statement to CNN on Friday.

An earlier version of this story misrepresented the birth year of Finley Aaron Love Lockwood and Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood. This was in 2008. The story has been updated to reflect this change.