Lisa Marie Presley, who died on Jan. 12, lived most of her life under the public eye as the singer was the sole daughter of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley. But growing up with the King of Rock ‘n Roll as her father made things “very exciting,” she said.
“He’d always wake me up to sing in the middle of the night, get on the table and sing,” Lisa Marie recalled during an interview on Good Morning America in 2009, People reported. “I remember him as my dad, but he was a very exciting dad.”
The iconic couple had Lisa nine months after their wedding, and she was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on Feb. 1, 1968.
Her time with Elvis in the home was fun, she explained, as she recalled during an interview with The Associated Press in 2012 that he would ride her around on golf carts through the neighborhood.
LISA MARIE PRESLEY, ELVIS AND PRISCILLA’S ONLY CHILD, DEAD AT 54
Rock and roll singer Elvis Presley with his wife Priscilla Beaulieu Presley and their 4-day-old daughter Lisa Marie Presley on February 5, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
She also recalled seeing his extravagant entrances as he came down the stairs.
“He was always fully, fully geared up. You’d never see him in his pajamas coming down the steps, ever,” she told the outlet in 2012. “You’d never see him in anything but ‘ready to be seen’ attire.”
Her parents divorced, however, in 1973, when Lisa Marie was 4, and she and her mother moved to Los Angeles.
It was out West where Lisa Marie met Michael Jackson during one of her father’s Las Vegas concerts when she was 7. She and the King of Pop later married.
Elvis died years later, in August 1977. He was 42.
She stayed at Graceland that night and recalled kissing her father goodnight before he collapsed and never recovered. She found him the next morning on the bathroom floor.
“I just had a feeling,” she told Rolling Stone in 2003. “He wasn’t doing well. All I know is I had it (a feeling), and it happened. I was obsessed with death at a very early age.”
His death made her the joint heir to his estate, and, when her grandfather, Vernon Presley and great-grandmother, Minnie Mae Hood Presley passed away in 1979 and 1980, she became the sole heir to the Graceland residence.
Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley & Elvis Presley
(Magma Agency/WireImage)
American rock legend Elvis Presley with his daughter Lisa-Marie Presley.
(Frank Carroll/Sygma via Getty Images)
Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley & Elvis Presley
(Magma Agency/WireImage)
Lisa Marie followed in her late father’s footsteps in picking up an interest in music and carried his legacy. Her father heavily influenced her music.
“It’s been all my life,” she told The Associated Press in 2012, referencing his influence. “It’s not something that I now listen to and it’s different. Although I might listen closer. I remain consistent on the fact that I’ve always been an admirer. He’s always influenced me.”
She married Danny Keough, a Chicago-based musician, in October 1988.
The two welcomed two children, daughter Riley in 1989 and son Benjamin in 1992, and divorced in May 1994.
Less than a month later, she and Jackson got married.
“I am very much in love with Michael, I dedicate my life to being his wife. I understand and support him,” she explained at the time, People reported. “We both look forward to raising a family.”
The relationship lasted two years.
This August 16, 1994 file photo shows US pop star Michael Jackson and his then wife Lisa-Marie Presley arriving at the airport in Budapest.
(AFP via Getty Images)
Michael Jackson and wife Lisa Marie Presley in 1995 at Versailles, France.
(Michel Dufour/WireImage)
“The one thing that correlates with Michael and with my father on this subject is that they had the luxury of creating whatever reality around them they wanted to create,” Lisa Marie told Oprah Winfrey in 2016, according to HuffPost. “They could have the kinds of people who were going to go with their program or not go with their program. If they weren’t, then they could be disposed of.”
Jackson died on June 25, 2009.
Lisa Marie also got engaged to musician John Oszajca in 2000, but broke it off when she met actor Nicolas Cage.
Two years later, Lisa Marie and Cage were married. They held a secret ceremony on the 25th anniversary of Elvis’ death in Hawaii but split up less than four months later.
“I’m sad about this, but we shouldn’t have been married in the first place,” Lisa Marie explained through her publicist, Paul Bloch.
LISA MARIE PRESLEY’S LIFE IN PICTURES
Lisa Marie married again in 2006 to Michael Lockwood, and the two welcomed twin daughters, Harper and Finley, in 2008.
Singer Lisa Marie Presley (L) and musician Michael Lockwood arrive at the “Mad Max: Fury Road” Los Angeles Premiere at TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on May 7, 2015 in Hollywood, California.
(Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
Lisa Marie Presley and performs on stage with husband and guitarist Michael Lockwood at the Triple Door Theater on August 28, 2013 in Seattle, Washington.
(Mat Hayward/Getty Images)
Their relationship also ended when Marie filed for divorce in June 2016. The two separated, and the divorce was finalized in 2021. A lengthy custody battle was fought over the children.
Lisa Marie was “ferociously protective” of her children, she told Healthy Living in 2014.
“I just smother them in love,” she added. “They are my priority. That’s what I do. That’s what I care most about. I keep them close to me and make sure they are happy and healthy.”
In 2020, Lisa Marie lost her son Benjamin to suicide. It fundamentally changed her life.
“My beautiful, beautiful angel, I worshiped the ground you walked on, on this earth and now in Heaven,” she wrote on Instagram after his passing. “My heart and soul went with you. The depth of the pain is suffocating and bottomless without you every moment of every day.”
She expressed her grief openly in the years since, most recently in an essay for People Magazine in 2022.
“I’ve dealt with death, grief and loss since the age of 9 years old. I’ve had more than anyone’s fair share of it in my lifetime, and somehow, I’ve made it this far,” she wrote at the time.
LISA MARIE PRESLEY HOSPITALIZED AFTER POLICE NOT RESPOND TO ‘NOT BREATHING CALL’ AT CALABASAS HOME
“But this one, the death of my beautiful, beautiful son? The sweetest and most incredible being that I have ever had the privilege of knowing, who made me feel so honored every single day to be his mother? Who was so much like his grandfather on so many levels that he actually scared me? Which made me worry about him even more than I naturally would have?” her essay continued. “No. Just no … no, no, no, no…”
“It’s a real choice to keep going, one that I have to make every single day and one that is constantly challenging, to say the least … But I keep going for my girls,” she wrote. “I keep going because my son made it very clear in his final moments that taking care of his little sisters and looking out for them were on the forefront of his concerns and his mind. He absolutely adored them, and they him.”
Lisa Marie Presley and her children Benjamin Keough (R), Riley Keough (L), and her half-brother Navarone Garibaldi (back) attend the premiere of “Lilo and Stitch” at the El Capitan theatre in Hollywood on June 16, 2002.
(CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)
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Lisa Marie died on Thursday, Jan. 12, after being transported to the hospital following a possible cardiac arrest. Priscilla confirmed the death that evening.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla said in a statement. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”
Those across the country immediately felt the loss as Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, John Travolta and others mourned her death.
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
