Priscilla Presley Says Lisa Marie Presley’s Death “Separated” Family

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Priscilla Presley admits it’s been a lonesome few years without her daughter Lisa Marie Presley.

It’s been three years since we lost Lisa Marie, Elvis’s only daughter, and it was just so sudden – she was only 54. Her mom recently spoke about how deeply it impacted all of us, especially Lisa Marie’s beautiful children: Riley Keough, who’s 36, and her amazing twins, Harper and Finley, who are 17. It’s been a really tough time for our whole family, and we’re all still trying to heal.

Priscilla shared that the situation has created distance between them. “We used to regularly share meals and spend time together as a family,” she explained during a public conversation on May 2nd at the Westgate Las Vegas.

The 80-year-old explained that this was partly because Lisa Marie’s youngest daughters—her children with ex-husband Michael Lockwood—are growing up. She said, “They’re starting to date and live their own lives.”

But Priscilla’s son, Navarone Garibaldi, who she shares with her ex-husband Marco Garibaldi, offered a different view. He believes the change actually started after the death of Lisa Marie’s son, Benjamin Keough, in 2020.

Looking back, I believe Ben’s death was the initial event that drove us apart,” she explained. “You’d expect a loss like that to unite people, but it actually had the opposite effect. Everyone processes grief differently, and that created distance between us.

After Lisa Marie’s passing in 2023, Navarone expressed feeling a stronger connection with others.

Priscilla’s granddaughter, Riley, who has two young children with her husband Ben Smith-Petersen, has talked before about how the family dealt with their sadness after Lisa Marie died.

After my mom died, our lives were thrown into complete disarray,” the 36-year-old shared with Vanity Fair in August 2023. “It felt like everything stable had suddenly disappeared, leaving us all feeling lost and panicked. It took time to sort through the details and figure out how to move forward, as the situation was quite complex.

Acknowledging some recent difficulties after her mother’s passing, Riley reassured Priscilla that things were settling down and would soon return to normal.

For a deeper look into the Presley family tree, keep reading…

Elvis Presley was one of the most popular musicians ever, and he remained a huge star even after his death. He passed away unexpectedly in 1977 at the age of 42 from heart problems, which were made worse by his use of prescription drugs.

In 1959, while serving in the U.S. Army in West Germany, 23-year-old Elvis Presley met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu. Although Priscilla has said their relationship remained mostly innocent until she turned 18, she later moved to Memphis to finish school. She was supposed to live with Elvis’s parents, Vernon and Dee Presley, but she mostly resided at Graceland.

Elvis Presley and Priscilla wed on May 1, 1967, at the Aladdin hotel in Las Vegas. Their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, was born on February 1, 1968.

Priscilla, who married Elvis Presley when she was 21, shared in a 2021 interview with People how much she enjoyed caring for him. She described lovingly looking after his needs, including feeding him, and how they developed a private, playful way of speaking to each other to maintain intimacy amidst the constant attention. Despite the unusual circumstances, she remembered it as a fulfilling and unique life they shared together.

Elvis and his wife separated in February 1972, and their marriage officially ended with a divorce the next year. He later explained during a Las Vegas performance that the split happened because his constant touring kept him away from home too often.

Even after Priscilla and her daughter Lisa Marie moved to Los Angeles, they continued to visit Graceland as a family. Priscilla told People magazine in 1978 that these visits “helped Lisa to feel stable. There was never any arguing or bitterness.”

August 16th, 1977… the day my world shattered. When Elvis died, it was like a part of me went with him. I remember reading in his book, Elvis and Me, how completely lost he felt, and honestly, I felt the same. It was just…unthinkable that I’d never see him again. He was always there, you know? I leaned on him so much, and he leaned on me. We just…understood each other. It was a connection unlike anything I’ve ever known, a true bond that death couldn’t erase, even if it felt like it could.

Lisa Marie, 9 years old at the time, was at Graceland when her father died.

In her 2024 memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, the author shared her lifelong fear of losing her father. She recalled instances where he seemed unwell or even passed out, which deeply worried her. As a child, she expressed this fear in a poem, writing, ‘I hope my daddy doesn’t die.’

And the day he passed, she noted in the book, “my life as I knew it is completely over.”

Lisa Marie Presley later pursued a career as a singer-songwriter, and in 2003, she released her first album, To Whom It May Concern.

She married musician Danny Keough in 1988, and they had two children, Riley and Benjamin Keough, before divorcing in 1994.

Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson on May 26, 1994, just weeks after her divorce was completed. Although their highly publicized marriage only lasted under two years, Lisa Marie later told Oprah Winfrey in 2010 – a year after Michael Jackson’s death – that they continued to have an on-and-off relationship for years and that she had never felt such a strong connection with anyone else.

Lisa Marie married Nicolas Cage, a dedicated Elvis fan, in August 2002. Though he filed for divorce that November, the divorce wasn’t completed until May 2004.

The actor announced he wouldn’t discuss the split, but shared that he still cared for Lisa Marie. She responded at the time, saying she was upset, but acknowledged the marriage had been a mistake and they shouldn’t have gotten married.

When Lisa Marie married musician Michael Lockwood in January 2006, her ex-husband, Danny, stood by her side as best man. They later had twin daughters, Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood and Finley Aaron Love Lockwood, in 2008.

Lisa Marie and her husband separated in 2016, and the divorce became complicated. During this time, her twin daughters lived with Priscilla Presley. The divorce was officially completed in May 2021.

Lisa Marie Presley passed away on January 12, 2023, at the age of 54. Her death was caused by a blockage in her small intestine, a complication from previous weight-loss surgery. This occurred just two days after she attended the Golden Globes to support the film Elvis, which starred Austin Butler as Elvis Presley and was directed by Baz Luhrmann.

Priscilla Presley and her then-partner, Marco Garibaldi Garcia, welcomed their son, Navarone, on March 1, 1987. Like his half-sister, Marco is a musician and the frontman for the Los Angeles band, Them Guns.

He married his longtime partner, Elisa Achilli, in 2022 at a luxurious hotel built on the grounds of a 16th-century castle in Switzerland.

Priscilla shared with People magazine that they had all been eagerly anticipating this moment, as the couple had been together for four years.

Riley Keough, born on May 29, 1989, is the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough. She’s a model, singer, and actress who has appeared in projects like The Girlfriend Experience, Daisy Jones & the Six, Magic Mike, and Logan Lucky. Following her mother’s passing, Riley inherited ownership of Graceland.

She also worked to finish Lisa Marie Presley’s autobiography. When it was published in 2024, she told People magazine that her goal – and what she hoped she achieved – was to show the real person behind the public image. She wanted to portray Lisa Marie as a complex and fully realized individual – a loving mother, a free spirit, a loyal friend, a talented but often overlooked artist, and someone who experienced a full range of emotions – from joy and humor to trauma and grief – throughout her extraordinary life.

Riley married stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen in 2015. They have two children: Tupelo Storm, born in August 2022 through surrogacy, and another child born in early 2025.

Benjamin tragically took his own life in July 2020 at the age of 27. Following his death, a spokesperson for Lisa Marie Presley stated she was utterly heartbroken and devastated, but determined to remain strong for her twin daughters, who were 11 at the time, and for Riley.

Lisa Marie openly shared her feelings about loss, explaining in a 2022 essay for People that grief doesn’t simply disappear or fade with time. The full weight of her own sadness became even clearer after her passing.

In her memoir, she shared that after Benjamin passed away, she kept his body on dry ice at her home near Los Angeles for two months before finally saying goodbye. He was then buried at Graceland in October 2020.

Lisa Marie was buried next to her son less than three years after his death.

Born on October 7, 2008, Harper and Finley live a quiet life with their father, Michael, who became their legal guardian after their mother, Lisa Marie, passed away.

Although they rarely post on Instagram, Finley and Harper honored their mother on the second anniversary of her passing in 2025. Finley shared a photo on her Instagram Story of her and her sister as babies, held by their mom, and wrote, “2 years…i love you always.” Harper posted a childhood picture, saying, “I can’t believe it’s been 2 years. I miss you and love you so much, Mama.”

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2026-05-06 17:50