When the film “Priscilla” was presented at the Venice Festival on September 4th, Priscilla Presley (New York, 78 years old) not only made headlines as the protagonist of the story based on the actress’s 1985 memoirs . The first tears and confessions came on the same day of the premiere in Venice, after the screening of the Sofia Coppola-directed biopic starring Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny, which tells the turbulent love story of her marriage to Elvis. “Yes, I left him, but not because I didn’t love him, he was the love of my life, but we broke up because his lifestyle was very different from mine and I think every woman can understand that. “But we are still very close,” said the emotional woman, who was the King of Rock’s wife from 1967 to 1973. “We never let each other down. I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you,” he concluded.
Since then, Priscilla has given a few interviews in which she has become more open. Not only about her past with the singer, but also about the memories that brought the film to life. He also talked about his life after him, about his family and how he dealt with the misfortunes that happened to him recently. “It was unbearable. I lost my mother, my grandson and my daughter,” he confessed to Piers Morgan in an interview on British television on November 2nd. Her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, died on January 12 from an intestinal obstruction caused by a previous stomach reduction operation, and Priscilla had not previously spoken about it on television. As she revealed, Lisa Marie never recovered from the blow of losing her son Benjamin Storm Keough, who committed suicide in 2020 at the age of 27: “Losing Ben was the hardest thing for her. He was the love of his life, he adored him. I would have done anything for him. (…) We were sitting in the suite in Memphis and she told me that she didn’t know if she wanted to stay alive. “He told me he was still grieving.”
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During her meeting with the British journalist, the actress, who also lost her mother Anna Lillian Iversen on August 2, 2021, shared what her last moments with her daughter were like and admitted that she had already noticed “that something was wrong.” ” “. On January 10, just two days before her death, the two attended the Golden Globes ceremony together in Hollywood. “We had just arrived and I stumbled a little on the stairs because I was wearing very high heels. We started laughing really hard and we hadn’t even drunk yet. He said, “My God, Mom, you can’t even drink.” “It was fun, it’s a nice memory,” he said. “As we sat down and ordered our drinks, he said to me, ‘Mom, I have to go, my stomach hurts a lot.’ I said, “Sure, are you okay?” and she said, “Yes, yes, I have to go.” Then I hugged her, she continued on her way and I followed mine, and that was the last hug I had gave her,” her heartbreaking confession continued.
Elvis and Priscilla Presley in the hospital with their new daughter Lisa Marie in Memphis, Tennessee, February 5, 1968. Bettmann (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Two days later, Priscilla received a call from Lisa Marie’s ex-husband Danny Keough: “I got in the car but he was already dead. I still can’t believe it. I wouldn’t wish that on any mother. “It’s still a shock that he’s not with us.” The death of her only daughter as a result of her marriage to Elvis sparked a controversial process to finalize the inheritance. Priscilla challenged the will because after the documents were changed in 2016, she was no longer the administrator of her firstborn daughter’s assets, leaving them in the hands of her children Benjamin and Riley, which she was unaware of until the singer’s death. After months of disagreements with his granddaughter Riley, lawyers for both parties reached an agreement in June of this year. Keough agreed to make a one-time payment of $1 million to her grandmother to become the sole executor of Lisa Marie’s estate and would pay her an additional $400,000 to cover her legal fees. In the interview, Elvis’ widow explained that she was happy that her granddaughter would look after the family legacy in the future. “I love her. We’ve always gotten along well. “We tried to resolve the will, as is usually the case, but Riley and I have always been very close,” he said, downplaying the matter.
From left: Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley and Riley Keough on June 21, 2022 in Hollywood, California. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin (FilmMagic/Getty Images)
Last Friday, November 3rd, Priscilla reopened. This time it was during a question and answer event at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas where she confirmed the rumor that she had vowed never to marry again while Elvis was still alive. “I just don’t think he can handle it,” he said of the late rock music icon. He died of a heart attack in 1977, just four years after their separation, but the actress is still keeping that promise almost four decades later. “To be honest, I never wanted to get married after him. I never felt like it. “Nobody could keep up with him,” he admitted. She had a relationship with producer Marco Garibaldi – with whom she has a son, Navarone, 36 and leader of the band Them Guns – for more than two decades, but they never married.
During the meeting, she also explained the reasons why she and Elvis decided not to have any more children after Lisa Marie. “Elvis felt he had a very busy schedule and felt a bit guilty about not being around when Lisa was younger. “With his schedule and touring, he felt like he wasn’t close enough to pay much attention to the birth of another child,” he responded to the audience.
From left to right: Sofia Coppola, Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi and Priscilla Presley at the premiere of “Priscilla” at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.picture Alliance (dpa/picture Alliance via Getty Images)
The couple met at a party in West Germany in 1959, when she was 14 and he was 24. “I walked into the room and thought, ‘Wow,'” he explained when chatting with Morgan about her captivating presence. Their whirlwind romance hit the screens in the United States in November and will soon air in Spain, but never met with her daughter’s approval. According to Variety, Lisa Marie wrote to Sofia Coppola before her death and told her she was opposed to the film. “My father just appears as a predator and a manipulator. As your daughter, I don’t see my father represented in the script (…) I will have to say what I think about the film and take public action against you and my mother,” he wrote in one of his messages to the Oscars – award-winning director in September last year.
Coppola responded that she hoped he would feel “different” when he saw the final result because he was trying to “honor” his family. In the end, Lisa Marie couldn’t see it. But her mother did it, in Venice she did it together with the actress who plays her, Cailee Spaeny, for whom the role of Priscilla won her the Volpi Cup for best actress. Nevertheless, she received the greatest recognition from her companion, the young actress said in an interview with SModa: “When she was finished, she turned around and said to me: ‘What a great performance.’ I saw my life through you.’ I cried. It was incredible.” Last Friday, Priscilla also commented on this. She confessed that at first she was “very worried” about the film, but now she thinks “it’s okay.” His opinion on Coppola is clear : “She has a big heart and a real connection to me. “I have no problem at all with what he did.”