Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of music icon Elvis Presley and actor Priscilla Presley, has died at the age of 54 following a cardiac arrest.
Presley was born in Memphis, Tennessee on February 1, 1968. She grew up living in her father’s Graceland estate until the age of four, when her parents separated. Presley moved with her mother to Los Angeles, California. Even though her parents were separated, she continued to see both, splitting time between both Los Angeles and Memphis. When she was 9, Presley’s father died of an apparent heart failure associated with prescription drug abuse.
Her early life was, despite the seeming advantages of her parents, not an easy one, and Presley struggled with addiction. At 17, Presley was sent to Scientology’s Celebrity Center rehab facility. There, Presley met musician Danny Keough. Presley and Keough married on October 3, 1988. and had two children, actress Riley Keough and a son named Benjamin, who died of apparent suicide in 2020.
Presley and Keough divorced in 1994. Only 20 days after her divorce to Keough was finalized, Presley married superstar Michael Jackson, who reportedly proposed over the phone after only four months of dating. Their relationship was short-lived, however, and Presley filed for divorce from Jackson in January of 1996. In 2000, while engaged to musician John Oszajca, she met Nicolas Cage. She soon broke off the engagement to Oszajca to date Cage. The couple married soon after in Hawaii on August 10, 2002 but divorced a mere 108 days later.
On January 22, 2006, Presley married for the fourth time, this time to guitarist, producer and director Michael Lockwood. The couple welcomed fraternal twins, Harper and Finley, on October 7, 2008. In 2016, Presley filed for divorce from Lockwood.
She inherited her father’s mansion, Graceland. And after the death of her father, grandfather and great-grandmother, she became sole owner of Presley’s entire estate when she turned 25. She sold 85% of the estate, which had an estimated value of $100 million when she inherited it, in 2005 to Industrial Media, but kept control of Graceland.
Following in her father’s footsteps, she forged a career as a singer, releasing several albums, including “To Whom It May Concern”, “Now What” and “Storm & Grace,” and enjoyed some success.
Priscilla Presley issued a statement after her daughter’s death. “It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Presley said. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”
Rita Wilson, who met Lisa Marie after husband Tom Hanks worked on ‘Elvis’, took to Instagram to remember her. “Our hearts are broken with the sudden and shocking passing of Lisa Marie Presley tonight. Tom and I had spent some time with the family during the ‘Elvis’ movie promotional tour. Lisa Marie was so honest and direct, vulnerable, in a state of anticipation about the movie,” Wilson wrote. “She spoke so eloquently about her father, what the movie meant to her, that it was a celebration of her dad. She had her gorgeous daughters Finley and Harper with her who made us all laugh. She privately showed us her home, Graceland, and she made it feel like home to us. She was so gracious to us, Austin, Baz, and guests. If you haven’t heard her music please go listen. She had a sultry voice, a power and tenderness, that I have always loved.”
She is survived by her mother, Priscilla Presley, her three daughters and a half-brother, Navarone Garibaldi.
