She Was 14 Years Old
Priscilla’s family move to Germany after her stepfather, a member of the US Air Force, was transferred there. Elvis was in the Army at the time, and he was in Germany as well. In September 1959, he met Priscilla at a party held at his rental house. She was just 14 at the time, but she made quite the impression on Elvis. He admitted that he was acting “awkward” and “embarrassed” while he was around her.
She Was 14 Years Old
He Kept In Touch With Her
After meeting at the party, Elvis was absolutely infatuated with her and they met often until he left Germany in 1960. She was convinced that after his departure their romance would end and she would likely never see him again. However, he kept in touch with her and they spoke on the phone, though they wouldn’t see each other again until the summer of 1962. Priscilla shared: “Elvis kept in touch with me as I wrote him letters as well for two years, so my parents saw that there was something that was going on and it was more than just friendship.”
Private Presley
Her Biological Father
Priscilla grew up with Paul Beaulieu as her father figure, but he was not her biological father. Her biological father was actually James Wagner, a US Navy pilot, who married her mother in 1944. When Priscilla was only 6 months old, he tragically died in a plane crash while coming home on leave. Priscilla’s mother later married Paul Beaulieu in 1948, and they had 5 children together. He also adopted Priscilla.
Her Biological Father
They Came Home Late
The day that Elvis and Priscilla met, she came home later than her parents allowed, and naturally they were absolutely furious about it. They forbade her from ever seeing Elvis again, but he managed to convince them that he would never bring her home late again. He always followed through and kept the promises that he made to her parents.
They Came Home Late
Not Initially Interested
Funnily enough, before Priscilla ever met Elvis, and despite the fact that her friends were all obsessed with him as a teen idol, she was not really interested in him. In fact, she even saw a photo of him in a magazine where he was signing a fan’s body part and she thought that this was very inappropriate. However, everything changed when they actually met.
Not Initially Interested
Not Being Faithful
Priscilla and Elvis continued their relationship as a long distance one, but rumors began to swirl about his seeing other women. He was having affairs with starlets like Ann-Margaret, who starred alongside him in Viva Las Vegas, and also with singer Nancy Sinatra. After Priscilla began to be concerned, Elvis told her that these were just rumors and that they were meant to help promote his films. He then asked her to move in with him at his Graceland estate.
Not Being Faithful
She Was There For Him
While he was still in the Army, Elvis received the devastated news that his mother Gladys had passed away. During this difficult time, Priscilla was there for him, making herself fully available to comfort him as he was grieving. He was in constant communication with Priscilla throughout those two years of their long distance relationship.
She Was There For Him
A Potential Ultimatum
Elvis proposed to Priscilla shortly before Christmas 1966. There have been rumors that Priscilla threatened to speak to the press if he didn’t propose to her, and that her father threatened him as well. Elvis’ manager Colonel Parker also pushed Elvis towards proposing to her.
A Potential Ultimatum
A Short Wedding Ceremony
The couples’ wedding ceremony took place on May 1st, 1967 at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. It was just 8 minutes long and featured just a few guests. It was followed by a press conference and a breakfast reception that was for friends, family, and associates from MGM, RCA, and William Morris Agency.
A Short Wedding Ceremony
Life Behind The Cameras
Shortly after their marriage, they spent time at a private ranch in Memphis. She shared that she was so happy and that “I loved playing house. Here was an opportunity to take care of him myself. No maids or housekeepers to pamper us.” However, once they commenced real life, she realized just how controlling Elvis really was. He would dictate to her how to dress, do her makeup (which he would often do for her), how to clean, and even what to think.
Life Behind The Cameras
Not Wanting Her To Age
Even though Elvis was 10 years older than Priscilla, he was still not interesting in the notion of her getting older. She admitted that “he applied makeup so heavily that you couldn’t tell if my eyes were black, blue, or black and blue,.That was what Elvis wanted.wanted to mold me to his opinions and preferences. He taught me everything. How to dress, how to walk, how to apply makeup and wear my hair, how to behave, how to return love—his way,” she added. “Over the years, he became my father, husband, and very nearly God.” She also admitted: “I always had a little bit of makeup. He never wanted to see me getting dressed, he wanted to see the end result.”
Not Wanting Her To Age
In Love But Afraid
Priscilla opened up that while she was very much in love with Elvis, he did have a temper that was quite scary. She said: “When he was angry, it was like the roar of thunder. No one could challenge his biting words; we could only wait until the storm passed. When Elvis calmed down, he made excuses- he hadn’t had enough sleep, he had too much sleep, or he hadn’t had his morning coffee yet.”
In Love But Afraid
What Would He Think?
Shortly after they got married, Priscilla discovered that she was pregnant. She was not happy about the fact that she was pregnant so early in their marriage, and worried that the closeness they finally achieved would be ruined. She had wanted to take birth control but he worried that they had not yet been perfected. After discussing ending the pregnancy, they agreed that they both did want to go through with it. Their daughter, Lisa Marie, was born on February 1st, 1968.
What Would He Think?
Being Controlled
As time went on and their marriage progressed, Priscilla found herself more and more under Elvis’s control. In fact, it has been reported that Elvis even controlled what she was allowed to eat and how she was allowed to look. He hated fish, and he banned it from ever being served at Graceland and told his wife that she was not allowed to eat it.
Being Controlled
Always Dressed Up
Even with all of his controlling behavior, Priscilla wanted to try to maintain her marriage as much as possible. She always wore make up and made sure to always be dressed nicely. She said that she even tried to copy the style and makeup of other celebrities in order to keep Elvis interested in her.
Always Dressed Up
Her Own Affair
Despite the beginning of their marriage being happy, things started to take a turn. While Elvis was away filming Live a Little, Love a Little, Priscilla started to take private dance lessons. She confessed that she was very attracted to her instructor and that they had an affair. However, in her book Elvis and Me, she shares that she regretted it and said: “I came out of it realizing I needed much more out of my relationship with Elvis.”
Her Own Affair
The End of Their Marriage
Amidst Elvis’ many affairs and Priscilla’s short affair, they managed to keep the marriage alive for a bit. Once his career took off once again in 1968, he started spending a lot of time away in Las Vegas. He kept seeing other women, and Priscilla was left alone at home with their daughter. After Elvis convinced her that she should take karate with Mike Stone, she began an affair with him. She shared: “My relationship with Mike had now developed into an affair. I still loved Elvis greatly, but over the next few months I knew I would have to make a crucial decision regarding my destiny.” She that when Elvis found out, he tried to reconcile, but it was too little too late, and they filed for divorced in 1972.
The End Of Their Marriage
Still Cared For One Another
Priscilla received $725,000 in the divorce settlement, which comes out to $7.2 million today. The settlement also covered child support, spousal support, and half of their mansion in Beverly Hills. Despite the fact that their marriage ended, they still cared for each other, and even left the courthouse the day of the divorce while holding hands.
Still Cared For One Another
In Denial
Priscilla was getting ready to go into a meeting when she received the call from her sister about Elvis being in the hospital. She rushed home, speeding past red lights, but by the time she made it back, she learned that he had already passed away of a heart attack. She said that even though they divorced, she had never stopped loving him and that he was always the love of her life. She said: “I needed to find out what the world was like, really, it was one world. But the greatest thing about our relationship was that we still loved each other.”
In Denial
Inheriting Graceland
After Elvis passed away, his father Vernon Presley inherited his estate. However, once Vernon passed away in 1979, Priscilla was the one who took over. It cost $500,000 each year to maintain the home, which was eating away at Lisa Marie’s inheritance. Priscilla decided to hire CEO Jack Snoden to turn Graceland into a tourist attraction, and just 4 weeks after opening up to the public, the estate made back the money that was invested into it. Eventually, the trust grew to be over $100 million.
Inheriting Graceland
Focusing On Her Career
Priscilla wanted to take control of her own life and not just be known as Elvis’ ex wife. In 1988, she launched a line of fragrances and later her own line of linen. She also began an acting career, appearing in The Fall Guy, Love Is Forever, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, and Dallas. She later made guest appearances on many shows like Melrose Place, Touched by an Angel, and Spin City.
Focusing On Her Career
Other Men
After divorcing Elvis, Priscilla went on to have relationships with several other men. After her relationship with Mike Stone ended in 1975, she went on to date photographer Terry O’Neill, lawyer Robert Kardashian (yes, of that Kardashian family), hairdresser Elie Ezerzer, and financier Kirk Kerkorian. More recently, she has been linked to TV executive Nigel Lythgoe, restauranteur Richie Palmer, Barry Crocker, and DJ Toby Anstis.
Other Men
Lisa Marie And Michael Jackson
When Lisa Marie Presley married legendary pop star Michael Jackson, she was just twenty days after her divorce from her first husband, musician Danny Keough. Priscilla was worried that her daughter was following in her footsteps of marrying a larger than life man that was older than her. This marriage also ended in divorce just two years later.
Lisa Marie And Michael Jackson
Finally Watching A Performance
While Priscilla was with Elvis for over 9 years, she had never seen him perform. Finally, after all of those years together, she finally saw him performing live. The show was at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. She opened up, saying: “It was the first time I’d ever seen Elvis perform live. Wanting to surprise me, he had kept me from rehearsals. I was astounded. At the end he left them still cheering and begging for more.”
Finally Watching A Performance
Joining Scientology
After Elvis passed away, Priscilla went through a difficult time in her life. She then decided to join the Church of Scientology, where she met John Travolta who helped her get through this difficult time. She convinced Lisa Marie to join the church as well. However, by 2014, Lisa Marie left the church and three years later, Priscilla left as well.
Joining Scientology
Still Feels His Presence
Priscilla shared that when she’s at Graceland, she can still feel Elvis’s presence there. She said: “Y’know it’s bittersweet for me to be here in front of Graceland. Y’know it’s 45 years since his passing and I still can’t believe it. I still think he’s here. I still feel him here. I go in Graceland, I feel his spirit. It’s honest God’s truth. I know he’s living there! Here’s there, trust me! Elvis, yes, he was an image. But for you to get to know him as the person, as the man who he really was. [He was] a lot of fun…his humanity was very touching and very true. I know I’ve never met anyone like him. He was unique, special and he was meant to be here for a purpose. And he is!”
Still Feels His Presence
Not Overnight Success
It might be strange to think about now, but before Elvis took over the world, his career was actually off to a slow start. Priscilla shared: “It didn’t happen the way maybe you would read it where he just came on the scene and that was it. Elvis worked high schools. He worked auditoriums. He worked at malls. He worked at tiny venues in the beginning. You look back and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I had no idea.’”
Not Overnight Success
Telling The Truth
While Priscilla opened up in her book and in interviews, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly, some have questioned why she would do this. She said: “There are so many books that have been written about Elvis that (have) so many untruths, fables, myths, altered information, false information, that at this time I would like to clear a lot of that up.”
Telling The Truth
Parent Life Blues
Something that Priscilla has also been open about after they were married, “I wanted to be a mom and yet, I traveled a lot and Elvis wanted me to be with him. It was a tug of war of trying to make it all work.” Elvis’s old friend Sonny West wrote in his book Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business, “It didn’t come easy for Elvis to be a committed husband. Elvis viewed her as a mother first and a wife second, and he had hang-ups about [being intimate] with her.”
Parent Life Blues
Not A Present Father
Priscilla also shared that Elvis was not totally there when it came to fatherhood duties. He was busy with his own life, and she told The Guardian: “I could not domesticate Elvis, and I accepted that.” She said that he was simply not around very often, and that he was not a “hands-on dad.”
Not A Present Father
Lisa Marie Speaks Up
This lax attitude gave Lisa Marie a lot of freedom during her childhood. She told The Talk on CBS that: “He was not strict at all. … My mom was completely the opposite, she was really strict, so it was very confusing.” She went on to say that Elvis did spend a lot of time with her even after her parents’ divorce. She was only 9 years old when her father passed away in 1977.
Lisa Marie Speaks Up
Tried To Hide It
As is often the case when it comes to rock and roll, Elvis had developed a drug addiction, which caused the decline in his career and may have even impacted his health, contributing to his early death. He was addicted to prescription drugs, and Priscilla shared: “Ordinary [intimate] thrills sometimes were not enough, especially when he was under the influence of powerful drugs. Eventually, Elvis’s consumption of drugs seemed as normal to me as watching him eat a pound of bacon with his Spanish omelette.” She shared that she tried to hide his pills, but it did not help, saying “you did not tell Elvis Presley what to do.”
Tried To Hide It
First And Last Love
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First And Last Love
Left Debt Behind
When Elvis passed away, he left behind about $5 million total from the massive fortune he had earned, but freely spent. He also left behind a lot of debt and his estate was left in a dire financial situation. Thanks to Priscilla’s management and her vision for Graceland, the Elvis empire was revived. When Lisa Marie turned 25, she inherited her trust. Unfortunately, she followed in her father’s footsteps and between 2005 and 2015, the money was all but gone and she was also left in debt.
Left Debt Behind
I Will Always Love You
When Dolly Parton released her song “I Will Always Love You” in 1974, it made a huge impression on Elvis. He wanted to record the song himself, but he asked for half of the song’s publishing rights, which Parton refused. In an interview with W, she said: “I wanted to hear Elvis sing it, and it broke my heart — I cried all night. But I had to keep that copyright in my pocket.” On the day of his divorce from Priscilla, he sang the song to her.
I Will Always Love You
He Thought He Could Train Her
Throughout the time that Elvis and Priscilla were together, he tried to train her into the exact woman he wanted her to be. She shared that she had become Elvis’s “own living doll, to fashion as he pleased.” She admitted that she lost her life during this time. Elvis’s old friend Rex Mansfield shared in his book Sergeant Presley that Elvis had once said about her: “She’s young enough that I can train her any way I want.”
He Thought He Could Train Her
Wanted To Explore The World
Despite the fact that Elvis was her first love and she regarded him as the love of her life, she felt that she was too oppressed and that she had to take control of her own destiny. She shared: “He was the love of my life, but I had to find out about the world.”
Wanted To Explore The World
Pursuing Perfume
In 1973, following her divorce, Priscilla opened up a clothing shop in Los Angeles with her friend, stylist Olivia Bis. She shared: “After the separation, I had to make up my mind about what I wanted to do, and since I had worked with Olivia for such a long time on my own clothes, I decided to try it professionally. We both do the designing for the shop, and have people who sew for us.” In 1988, she also released her own line of fragrances and then a line of her own linen.
Persuing Perfume
Lisa Marie’s Career
Lisa Marie Presley followed in the footsteps of her musician father and in April 2003, she released her first album To Whom It May Concern. It reached #5 on the Billboard 200 album chart and went gold in June 2003. She released a second album in April 2005 entitled Now What, and a third in 2012 called Storm & Grace.
Lisa Marie’s Career
Their Granddaughter
Lisa Marie Presley has four children, two with ex-husband Danny Keough, and two with ex-husband Michael Lockwood. Her daughter Riley Keough is an actress and model herself. She appeared in fashion shows for Christian Dior and Dolce & Gabbana, and has starred in films like The Runaways, The Good Doctor, Jack & Diane, Magic Mike, and Mad Max. She has also appeared in several TV shows as well.
Their Granddaughter