On Friday night Norwegian time, the news came that rock king Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had been rushed to hospital after a suspected cardiac arrest.
A few hours later, the mother, Priscilla Presley (77), stated that the daughter had passed away, aged 54.
“It is with a heavy heart that I have to share the terrible news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla Presley said in a statement.
Also read: The last interview: – It was absolutely incredible
In retrospect, friends and acquaintances from The Hollywood community paid tribute to Presley on social media.
There is no doubt that Presley’s 54-year-long life was rich in content. If you take a deep dive into her life, several startling details emerge.
Among other things, during her life she experienced seeing her father die on the bathroom floor, and she also lost her former husband, Michael Jackson, and then her own son. So life has not been all joy and fun.
Explored with drugs
Already nine years old, Lisa Marie Presley lost her father, Elvis Presley, in 1977. As the only child of the rock king, she took over her father’s fortune and home, known as Graceland. However, she did not get control of these funds herself until she turned 25 in 1993.
When the king of rock died, his fortune was worth five million dollars, but with the help of his parents and ex-wife, it grew bigger and bigger. When Presley took control it was worth a staggering $100 million.
With close to one billion kroner on the books, one would think that a life of joy was in store, but that was not the case for the heir.
She has lived a life characterized by substance abuse, which she started experimenting with already as a 13-year-old.
– Cocaine, anesthetics, hashish and alcohol – all at the same time. I never got hold of heroin, but I would have taken it if given the chance. I couldn’t stay sober, she has previously said Paper Magazine.
video/embed.jsp?id=00ac67b7-1e8b-4058-8d12-c57bb34e7df8&pi=3689c16b-4cb9-4a36-baf4-2c3aa7fcc811&startTime="/>
video/embed.jsp?id=00ac67b7-1e8b-4058-8d12-c57bb34e7df8&pi=3689c16b-4cb9-4a36-baf4-2c3aa7fcc811&startTime="/>
video>
video-description"> Lisa Marie Presley died Thursday. She lived to be 54 years old.
Daughter of the “King of Rock”, married to the “King of Pop”
As the daughter of the world’s biggest rock star, Presley herself was part of the famous Hollywood milieu. Thus, her romantic relationship has been of great interest to American tabloids.
Presley has been married four times. First with musician Danny Keouhg, then pop king Michael Jackson, actor Nicolas Cage, and finally music producer Michael Lockwood.
Also read: Regrets own reaction: – Thought: “What the f**k are you saying?”
The former she was in a six-year marriage with, but only 20 days after the divorce was a fact, she remarried Michael Jackson.
Jackson and Presley first met in 1975, but did not develop a romantic relationship until 1992. Two years later, they were married. It was during this period that Jackson was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.
According to Daily Mail Presley is said to have maintained that Jackson was innocent and urged him to settle the charges out of court and enter rehab for his drug addiction.
However, she would later deny knowledge of Jackson’s drug use during their marriage.
However, the marriage between two of the world’s biggest surnames in the music industry did not last long. The couple divorced in 1996, citing “irreconcilable differences”.
– I loved being by his side and taking care of him. I got a kick out of it and it was an important time in my life. But there came a clear point in the marriage where he had to make up his mind. Did he want drugs, or did he want me? she said to Oprah Winfrey, according to Huffington Post.
According to Presley, however, they had an on-and-off relationship for four years after the divorce.
When Jackson died in 2009, Presley admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that she had felt manipulated by him in their marriage, but that any feelings of bitterness towards him had died with him.
Married for 107 days
In 2000, she broke off her engagement to singer John Oszajca, in favor of Nicolas Cage.
In a short time they were married, but it only took 107 days before they went their separate ways. In an interview with Larry King in 2003, Presley described the marriage thus:
– It was in a way one of those times where you marry someone in the hope of either stabilizing your life, or highlighting everything that happened before that was problematic. So it kind of made the last, that’s all, she said according to Smoothradio.
Revealed millions of debts
As mentioned, Presley had several marriages, and in 2006 she married her fourth husband, music producer and guitarist Michael Lockwood.
Despite the fact that Presley brought an inherited fortune of $62 million to the marriage at the time, and Lockwood brought only $3,000, the couple fell deeply in love and had twins Harper and Finley.
The marriage was her longest, but finally ended after ten years in 2016. According to People the two ended up in a bitter dispute that deals with far more than just irreconcilable differences. Presley reported the ex for child abuse.
Despite Presley entering with a solid prenuptial agreement, Lockwood took his ex-wife to court for a significant portion of her fortune.
During the divorce proceedings, Presley revealed for the first time that she was having financial problems. This was in response to a request from Lockwood that she help pay part of his legal fees, which over the years had been as high as 3.5 million.
She claimed, among other things, that she was $16 million in debt – which Lockwood claimed was untrue.
The battle lasted two years and was finally settled in Presley’s favor in 2018. Her fortune remained protected and Lockwood remained nearly penniless.
The Elvis fortune evaporated
According to News, Presley has previously claimed to only be good for approximately one million Norwegian kroner. This is because she has attributed to former business partners and a manager who made bad investments.
In 2003, she hired Barry Siegel to help her with her fortune. It must have been the start of a long feud.
In 2018, Presley accused Siegel of squandering his $100 million fortune and mismanaging the rock king’s legacy. Presley believed her fortune was reduced to $14,000, along with a debt of $500,000.
According to Daily Mail accused Presley Siegel of squandering her money “through his reckless and negligent self-serving ambitions.”
Siegel denied the allegations and countered by accusing her of excessive spending. In addition, he countersued Presley for 800,000 dollars.
According to the website, Siegel sold 85 percent of Presley’s holdings of “Elvis Presley Enterprises” in 2005. Thus, she lost the rights to her father’s name and image rights.
Siegel claimed the deal cleared over $20 million in debt Presley had incurred, and claims to have provided her with $40 million in cash and a multi-million dollar income stream.
Presley, for his part, believed they lost millions thanks to a subsequent investment in Core Entertainment, the company behind “American Idol,” which went bankrupt in 2016.
The lawsuit was never settled before Presley’s death on January 13, 2023.
Lost his own son
After many years of multiple challenges, Presley experienced the greatest grief of his life when his son, Benjamin Keough, died in August 2020.
Two years after her death, she wrote an essay published in People about the “horrific reality” of grief after her son’s suicide.
In the letter, she wrote candidly that grief could feel lonely and that she had struggled with guilt after her son’s death.
– I blame myself every single day, which in itself is hard enough to live with, but others will also judge and blame you. Even secretly and behind your back, which is even more cruel and painful on top of everything else,” the 54-year-old said in the letter.
In addition to Benjamin, Presley had children Riley (33), Finley (13), and Harper (13).
