Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s only daughter, has died at the age of 54.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the terrible news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla Presley said in a statement to The Associated Press. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”
Presley started the week in a celebratory mood, first celebrating his father’s 88th birthday with fans at Elvis’ home in Memphis, Graceland, and then tearfully applauding alongside his mother, Priscilla, when Austin Butler won a Golden Globe Award for his role as The King of Rock and roll in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic Elvis.
“I think he would be proud”:Lisa Marie Presley and fans celebrate Elvis’ 88th birthday
But on Thursday, she suffered an apparent cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, north of Los Angeles, and was taken to a local hospital, according to TMZ, the first to report it. She died a few hours later.
Although Presley was famous from the moment she was born and went on to become a singer in her own right, releasing three albums, she really jumped into the pop culture maelstrom by unexpectedly marrying pop superstar Michael Jackson and later Elvis fan and actor Nicolas Cage. .
Both of these marriages were short-lived, though longer unions produced four children, including her son Benjamin Keogh, who committed suicide in 2020.
Basically, Presley, with her half-closed eyes and withering gaze, clearly reminiscent of Elvis, became known mainly as the custodian of his legacy and heiress to his estate.
Lisa Marie Presley recently celebrated Elvis’ 88th birthday with fans at Graceland.
Presley visited Graceland last Sunday to help fans celebrate her father’s 88th birthday.
“It’s been a long time. I’ve missed you,” she told the assembled crowd. “I keep saying that you are the only people who can get me out of my house. I’m not kidding.”
Lisa Marie Presley grew up in the shadow of her father’s fame — her name was even emblazoned on her father’s plane — until her parents divorced in 1973. It seemed that she was destined to lead a life in the eyes of the public due to the fact that both views reflected her appearance. father, as well as a famous singing voice to match.
Despite being the only child of the global icon, Presley at times seemed to wonder what all the fuss was about her.
“I thought it was a fun idea, but I really didn’t realize how interesting it could be for other people,” she told USA TODAY in 2012 when discussing Graceland’s new exhibition titled “Elvis… Through the Eyes of His Daughter.”
Among the most touching personal items were the blue turntable that played her first 45, her footprints imprinted on a hospital birth record, and a recreation of her childhood Presley. “It’s all very personal and subjective,” she said. “But it worked out well.”
Her shocking marriage to Michael Jackson
She made a splash in pop culture in 1994 when she divorced musician Danny Keogh, father of her children Riley and Benjamin, and married Jackson. They divorced less than two years later, although Presley remained a staunch defender through the years of child abuse allegations leveled against the star.
She married Cage in 2002, but it lasted less than two years. She married guitarist Michael Lockwood in 2006; they officially divorced in 2021 and have twin daughters, Finlay and Harper, 11.
If Presley found solace amidst the storm of being Elvis’ only child, it was overseas in Kent, the pastoral English suburb southeast of London, that robbed her of her time and heart a decade ago.
Speaking to USA TODAY in 2012 ahead of the release of her Storm & Grace album, Presley said she longed to return to her un-famous life in England.
“I just love it there,” she said. “I work in the garden, I go for long walks, I cook. I have very nice neighbors – we often meet at the local pub. Not that we could keep up with them there. from the village.”
In the same interview, Presley spoke of feeling emotionally and financially ripped off by her closest confidants.
“I was slowly starting to self-destruct and I didn’t know where it came from,” Presley told USA TODAY and suggested the damage was both personal and professional. “I got bad advice. I was isolated from reality. They took my soul, my money, my everything.”
Overcoming opioid addiction made Lisa Marie Presley feel ‘grateful to be alive’
Presley’s demons also included drug addiction. In 2019, she detailed her opioid addiction in the foreword to Opioids in the United States: A Recipe for a Nation’s Pain Free.
Noting that she felt “grateful to be alive,” Presley said the painkillers prescribed after her twins were born eventually led to a full-blown addiction.
“It’s a difficult journey to overcome this addiction and get your life back on track,” she wrote. “Even in recent years, I have seen too many people I love struggle with addiction and die tragically from this epidemic. It’s time for us to say goodbye to the shame of addiction. We must stop blaming and judging ourselves and those around us. … It starts with us sharing our stories.”
Presley will have to face another pain in 2020 when her 27-year-old son committed suicide. Last fall, in honor of National Grief Awareness Day, Presley wrote an essay for People magazine about the pain her family faced following the incident.
“My life and that of my three daughters as we knew it was completely undermined and destroyed by his death. We live in it each. Lonely. 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 want us to believe. You don’t “get over it”, you don’t “move on”, period.”
After all, Lisa Marie Presley might well have found the solace she’s been searching for all her life if only she could spend more time in the place she truly called home.
“I love Graceland,” she told USA TODAY in 2012 of her childhood home. “My heart will always be there.”
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