It’s Been a Pretty Wild Life for Lisa Marie Presley: A Look Back at the Highs, the Lows, the Controversies and More

‘Comeback’ Aftermath

Fast-forward four years, and a lot has happened. For starters, Elvis’ career was back on track thanks largely to NBC’s so-called “1968 Comeback Special,” the director of which, Steve Binder, shared his feeling with Closer Weekly in an exclusive interview, “I would say without the ’68 special, we wouldn’t be talking about Elvis Presley. We’d remember him pre-’68 for his movies and his early Ed Sullivan appearances and so forth. But I think he would just be a memory, period. There certainly wouldn’t be that much interest in touring his home in Graceland, and there wouldn’t be all these huge corporations that are behind him. Previous to that special, the public never got to see the real Elvis. Suddenly they did, and that changed everything.”

On the downside, there was also the marriage between Elvis and Priscilla, which by 1973 had ended in divorce — Lisa Marie was only four years old. That divorce, by all reports, had a devastating impact on Elvis, from which he never really recovered. In the aftermath of the breakup of her parents, Lisa Marie would live with her mother in a Los Angeles apartment while spending time with her father at Graceland, where she was indulged in every way. It was, she says, a confusing existence for a child.

Adler and Andrews write that while at Graceland, “Elvis quite literally let Lisa run wild. Stories abound of her racing through the mansion, jumping up and down, with Elvis nonchalantly looking on. As soon as she learned how to ride her bike, she was a terror in the house, cruising around the formal dining room table … Elvis found it impossible to raise his voice to her. At most a firm ‘Lisa’ was all he could manage. This reluctance to discipline Daddy’s little girl can be seen in countless incidents which might otherwise be dismissed as trivial, except for what they reveal about this father-daughter relationship … Aware of who her father was and that he adored her, but not understanding the consequences of what she was doing, Lisa began to wreak havoc with the staff. If a servant wouldn’t do something 4-year-old Lisa wanted, Lisa figured quite cleverly that she could manipulate them. She would wield her power over them, saying, ‘I’m gonna tell my daddy and you’re going to get fired.’ The servants, knowing how much Lisa meant to Elvis, often let her get her way.”

“I don’t think I looked at it as being spoiled,” she reflected in an interview with journalist Stina Dabrowski regarding her time with Elvis. “I think that I looked at it as my father loved me and didn’t get to spend a lot of time with me. And when he did, he wanted to go out of his way to do whatever I needed to do to make me seemingly happy. I had a very large dichotomy, though. That was part of my life, but then I would go home and live in a small apartment with my mother in Los Angeles. It was just the dichotomy of going from a very regimented, scheduled, normal life in an apartment with my mom. My mother was very levelheaded and very set on me being levelheaded, so she’d have to sort of undo whatever was done. If I went to Graceland, I spent two weeks being a crazy tyrant and she’d have to sort of guide me back in the right direction.”

In that same interview, Lisa conveyed the fact that her childhood was actually a pretty lonely one. She would often spend time in her room listening to music (“Music was everything”) rather than play with friends. On top of that, in most of the photos that were taken of her at the time, she simply doesn’t look very happy. “I was very deep as a kid,” she says. “I had a lot of questions about life, was exposed to death very early. I’m wasn’t really a kid that was interested in being materialistic or a celebrity. I was very sort of spiritual at a young age, wanting to know deep, dark questions about life very early on.”

Which is not to say that she didn’t have fun. During an appearance on The Talk, she was asked about her childhood at Graceland. “He and I spent a lot of time together,” said Lisa Marie. “The upstairs part of Graceland is basically his room and my room, so we spent a lot of time together up there, because there wasn’t anything else going on. He’d set up a little chair in my room and a TV and be in my room a lot.” When asked if he was strict, she laughed, “He was not strict at all. And I got away with murder. When he would sleep all day, me and my friends had the run of Graceland all day, and I knew no one was going to tell me what to do, because they would get fired. I was, truthfully, a terror, to be honest. I’m not proud of that particularly. My mom was completely the opposite, she was really strict, so it was very confusing.”

Viva Las Vegas … Or Not

Over the next few years, Elvis fell into personal decline, feeling depressed, not interested in recording music and having extended engagements in Vegas, which he found debilitating. When he died on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42, Steve Binder says he wasn’t exactly surprised. “The Colonel,” he opines, speaking of Elvis’ long-time manager Colonel Tom Parker, “loved Vegas. In fact, in the end he had gambled away his personal fortune, and Elvis in his last years spent much of his time booked there. I don’t think Elvis died of drugs. I think he died of boredom. After the [Comeback] special, I didn’t communicate a lot with him, because I was persona non grata insofar as the Colonel was concerned. I tried, but couldn’t get through to him and then I moved on. I mean, that just wasn’t my life. When I heard that he had passed away, I saw pictures of him as this bloated figure, but I just knew that he was trapped and he didn’t have the strength to get out of it. He ended up being a saloon singer in Las Vegas, which is the last thing he wanted to do. But, you know, every great story has some kind of great tragedy in it, and this is a great tragedy to me.”

Dealing With the Loss of Her Father

More tragic, though, for Lisa Marie, was losing her father and the fact that she was only 9. For the next several years both she and Priscilla would struggle through the pain, Lisa Marie becoming both introverted and rebellious as time went on. On the fiscal front, things were pretty rough as well. It seems that when Elvis died, his will called for his entire estate to go to Lisa Marie when she turned 25. In the meantime, his father, Vernon Presley, would manage things, but after he passed away in 1979, Priscilla, as Lisa’s legal guardian, began co-managing the trust with the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis. What they discovered is that the estate was in dire straits and could be bankrupt in a number of years. It seems that Colonel Parker, who was still handling Elvis’ business affairs, was making deals that benefited him far more than it did the estate. This resulted in a legal struggle that was settled out of court, involving a payment of $2 million to the Colonel as well as a termination of his involvement in all Elvis concerns.

Welcome to Graceland

Lisa Marie’s financial future was saved by the fact that her mother, rather than sell the Graceland estate, elected, instead, to open it to the public and turn it into a tourist attraction. When all was said and done, potential bankruptcy had turned into a $100 million success by the time Lisa Marie inherited it all in 1993. A little more than a decade later, Lisa made a deal where she kept Graceland (still open to the public), but apparently sold the bulk of Elvis’ estate in a deal that was reportedly worth $100 million and which would help to expand the scope of “Elvis Presley Enterprises.” Financially, a very happy ending, but between Elvis’ death and this deal, there had been a number of troubling years for Lisa Marie.

Struggles With Scientology

Following the death of Elvis, a depressed and solemn Lisa Marie began trying to alleviate the pain she was feeling by taking drugs, beginning at the age of 14. It was at that time that she dropped out of junior high school. She continued with the drug taking for the next three years, when Priscilla — a practicing member of Scientology — sent Lisa Marie to the organization’s Celebrity Center rehab facility as well as the Apple School, a scientology-based educational environment that allowed students to proceed at their own rate. Unfortunately, she pretty much refused to apply herself.

While that might be true, she gradually became disillusioned by it and, as the Huffington Post reported her saying, “I was slowly starting to self-destruct and I didn’t know where that was coming from. I started to uncover the main person who was really close to me for years, and then it was a domino effect. I was devastated. I got bad advice. I was insulated with no grip on reality. They were taking my soul, my money, my everything.”

The website elvispresleynews.com summarized her experience with the religion as follows: “Over the years, Lisa Marie rose through the ranks of the mysterious church, becoming an influential and well-respected member, even accepting a Humanitarian Award for her activities within the church. But in the past decade she is said to have had a growing dissatisfaction with Scientology, and in 2016 officially defected.”

Finding Love

In the early years of her time with Scientology, Lisa Marie met musician Danny Keough, who actually became something of a musical mentor to her. The two gradually fell in love and ended up getting married on October 3, 1988. The following year (on May 29) their daughter, Danielle Riley Keough, was born. Then, on October 21, 1992, their son, Benjamin Storm Keough, was born. Despite the fact that there is an undeniable bond between Lisa Marie and Danny — that by all reports continues to this day — their marriage came to an end on May 6, 1994, when Lisa Marie obtained what’s been described as a “quickie divorce” the same day.

And Then There Was Michael Jackson

To say the world was stunned would be an understatement when, just 20 days after her divorce from Danny, Lisa Marie married Michael Jackson and nobody outside of that intimate circle of two ever could understand how that had come about. They’d met back in 1975 when Lisa Marie, then 7, attended a number of his concerts in Las Vegas. By some reports, they’d been in touch with each other since 1992 child molestation charges were made against him and, as she tried to console him, they developed feelings for each other.

In her interview with Stina Dabrowski, Lisa Marie attempted to explain how she and Michael Jackson came together: “He’s very different than he presents himself to be in public. I think we had different lives, different circumstances, and sort of connected based on that. It kind of went from there. We started talking and immediately related to one another and it just kind of went from there. But we were raised differently and in different circumstances presented to us in life. I didn’t necessarily think it was going to go romantic, but it did… People weren’t really into that one. They were saying certain things about it, and I needed to figure it out on my own, because he was riding this sex abuse scandal [charges] and things. My mom was just, like, ‘Look at the timing of this; don’t be stupid.”

Being married to someone more famous than her was actually something she was able to adapt to. “Then I can sort of have my position as a female; I can be next to the man and feel more comfortable that way. I wasn’t seeking publicity myself. I was kind of looking to feel like I can support somebody else that I admired. I kind of just adapted into taking care of him, being a wife, sort of trying to do that. I enjoyed it for a while, but I don’t think it was at all appreciated and it sort of started to just dwindle out of control and it went to hell in a hand basket.”

In a separate interview, she elaborated, “This was a real marriage. This was a sexual relationship and all of that, but the rest of the world thought it was a publicity stunt. I understand that, because to some degree he was a master of manipulating the media. I understand that nobody really knew who I was, so they just assumed that I was going along with something that he would be doing. He was brought up that way and his life was completely different than anyone else’s life, except for my father. He was conditioned to sort of get himself where he needed to go for his career and with his talents, and he became very good at manipulating to some degree. I always confused that manipulation, thinking that that manipulation was because he didn’t love me, but it was a survival tactic for him.”

But in January 1996, it all came to an end, as the couple filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. According to a report at CNN, Michael actually wanted to file for divorce first but was talked out of it by Lisa Marie, but then the next morning there were headlines everywhere that she had filed first. However it worked, Lisa Marie found that the marriage had, in a sense, stigmatized her without her knowing it at first. “I’m always associated with that and it turned me into a freak,” she said, though she did find solace at the time through Scientology. “It helped me understand myself, my mind, other people’s minds, sanity and insanity; the dark black cloud that seems to be looming over everybody (whatever you want to call that). Scientology answered that for me very well.” It should be noted that in the aftermath of Michael’s death, she was racked with depression, but gradually found her way out of it and came to terms to exactly what the relationship was and wasn’t.

Nicolas Cage Arrives on the Scene

Although the next four years were filled with reported attempts at a reconciliation, it never happened. In 1999 she was briefly engaged to rocker John Oszajca, but that was broken off after she met actor Nicolas Cage at a party. The two of them got married on August 10, 2002. Just three months later, Cage filed for divorce, which became finalized in 2004. Explained Lisa, “We had similar backgrounds, similar histories in terms of our families being what they were, and an immediate connection. We were kindred spirits, rebellious and just different from other people. I think we just got connected on that front. We were together two years before we got married, so it was one of those things where we already had a certain pattern going. It was a bit wild and stormy, so the hope was marriage would make that more stable, make each other feel more secure, and it didn’t. When you get married based on something like that, it’s either going to embellish the problem or it’s going to handle it. In this case, it amplified it. We were two pirates, basically, and one when one pirate marries another, they’ll sink the ship. That’s what happened.”

For his part, Nicolas explained in an interview with Barbara Walters, “When you have two people who are very strong in their own personalities and rather intense sometimes — I’ll even use the word stubborn or not willing to compromise — you can have a hard time meshing. So we got into this unfortunate pattern of breaking up, getting back together again, breaking up, getting back together again. Sometimes I wish we hadn’t rushed the marriage and sometimes I regret rushing the divorce, but it wasn’t going to change with Lisa Marie. The marriage was only three and a half months; that’s not really very long to try to figure something out. We do talk and we’re friends. In a lot of ways, she was like a best friend, and maybe that’s because I didn’t want anything from her and she didn’t want anything from me.”

And Let’s Not Forget Michael Lockwood

Moving on to January 2006, Lisa Marie married for the fourth time, in this case to guitarist Michael Lockwood (who also happened to be her music producer and director — more on her music shortly). In March 2008 she gave birth to the couple’s fraternal twin girls, Harper Vivienne Ann and Finley Aaron Love. That marriage came to an end in 2016 and, a year later, she had her daughters put into protective custody after filing with the court that she had found hundreds of “inappropriate” images of children on his computer. Acrimony between them continues to this day.

Thoughts on Romance

Finding the right person has been and continues to be problematic for Lisa Marie, who told Stina Dabrowski, “That’s been the biggest dilemma, I think. That’s always difficult, because they can be very talented, beautiful people — spirits — and then get with me and get overwhelmed by the fact I have the money or the fame and celebrity, and they lose their identity. Their ego goes down and there’s resentment. So then I go to the extreme opposite with, ‘OK, now this person’s more famous than me,’ and then that has its drawbacks. So it’s not easy either way. There’s got to be something in the middle, you know? Men tend to want to be the provider instinctively, so it’s a little difficult.”

Embracing Her Musical Legacy

No surprise that music was something Lisa Marie has been obsessed with most of her life. Elvis.com.au notes that when she joined Scientology at 18, she “began writing songs, but the process proved nerve-wracking. Lisa Marie was aware of the pressures of being Elvis Presley’s daughter, so she didn’t exactly pursue songwriting that seriously.” That being said, as she told Stina Dabrowski, “Songwriting is cathartic and therapeutic for me, so I pull from pain. I respond to music where someone’s really sort of purging emotionally. I’ve been writing to get myself through things.”

Jump ahead to 2003, and she finally released her debut album, To Whom It May Concern, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart and was certified gold. This was followed two years later by Now What, which reached No. 9. Then, in 2012, she released album No. 3, Storm & Grace. Although over the years Lisa Marie has performed with a number of different artists, the collaboration that has probably gotten the most attention has been with her late father, first on the music video of “Don’t Cry Daddy,” which was performed (thanks to footage of Elvis) in 1997 on the 20th anniversary of The King’s death. Ten years later, they were at it again with the single and music video of “In the Ghetto.”

Lisa Marie Presley Today

Never someone who loved the spotlight, Lisa Marie has remained fairly out of it as of late. However, Radar Online provided the following update on her: “Lisa Marie and her ex [Michael Lockwood] have been fighting over post-nuptial agreements, spousal supports and custody of their twin daughters, Harper and Finley, both 10. But her family drama is not Lisa Marie’s only issue. The wild star owes $402,332.01 in taxes and has friends worried sick about her health. Readers recall that in 2015 Michael claimed Lisa Marie’s drug use was getting out of control. Soon, she checked herself into rehab and left her mother, Priscilla, in charge of her twins. She is now sober and hoping to get full custody of her girls.”

Author, Author

As Closer Weekly has previously reported, many of Lisa’s problems may be solved by the fact that she has supposedly signed a $3-4 million deal to write a new autobiography that promises “shocking revelations about Michael Jackson and a completely new understanding of Elvis.” An insider exclusively told Closer Weekly that “Priscilla isn’t happy with Lisa Marie for making a deal with a publisher [and] doesn’t want her to affect Elvis Presley Enterprises and the various business assets” the family has accumulated over the years. Bottom line: there are going to be many people to learn the full story from Lisa Marie’s point of view, especially considering all of the highs and lows of her life over the years. As she related to Jenna Bush Hager on Today, “I’ve come a long way. I’m not perfect. My father wasn’t perfect. No one’s perfect and it’s what you do with it after you learn, and then you try and help others with it.”