Lisa Marie Presley had a challenging life from the day she was born. But for the daughter of one of
the most famous rock stars of all time, the last year of her life was particularly devastating.
Fighting lawsuits
2022 saw Lisa Marie Presley winding down litigations that stretched back
years. Many had been concerned with money. The estate she inherited from
her father was largely overseen by Presley's business manager, Barry Siegel, for years,
and Siegel was instrumental in the deal Presley made in a 2005 deal over Elvis
Presley's intellectual property rights. But by 2018, Presley and Seigel had launched competing
lawsuits against one another. Presley claimed that Siegel's mismanagement had cost her millions,
while Seigel alleged that a spendthrift Presley had stiffed him on $800,000 worth of bills.
Presley's finances entered into her legal battles with her ex-husband, Michael Lockwood.
She filed for divorce from Lockwood in 2016, and the two fought a lengthy and acrimonious
custody battle for their twin daughters. The divorce itself wasn't finalized until 2020,
and the fight for custody and child support continued well into 2022. The Blast obtained
court documents showing that Presley pulled in a monthly fee of over $104,000 from businesses
related to her father, and another $4,361 a month for her work with Graceland. However,
this was not enough to offset her debts, estimated at around $4,000,000.
Experiences with grief
In 2020, Lisa Marie Presley's son Benjamin Keough, her youngest child by her first
husband Danny Keough, died of a gunshot wound. His death was ruled a suicide, and for Presley,
who had been particularly close to Keough, the loss was incalculable. After his death,
she vanished almost entirely from the public eye to cope with the grief.
For National Grief Awareness Day in 2022, Presley stepped out to share some of how she
had dealt with the previous two years. Taking pen in hand, she wrote a short essay for People. She
raised three points from her own experience: that grief is a natural emotion that endures for life,
that the grieving need a support network and often can't maintain one, and that premature and tragic
losses — like a parent losing a child — can leave survivors judged and ostracized. Without naming
names, Presley implied that longtime friends and family hadn't been there for her since Keough's
death, though she had found help through support groups and a select few old faces from her life.
Presley ended by encouraging anyone who knew someone struggling with a
loss to reach out in support, noting how difficult it was to keep going.
Her own motivation to do so, she said, came from her daughters.
Promoting "Elvis"
Lisa Marie Presley's chief concern at the end of her life was struggling with grief
from the loss of her son. But 2022 saw her come back into public view,
on account of a tribute and celebration of her father. That year saw the premiere of Baz
Luhrmann's elaborate musical biopic, "Elvis," and Presley took to Instagram to sing its
praises. She was particularly happy with Austin Butler's portrayal of her father. She wrote,
"In my humble opinion, his performance is
unprecedented and FINALLY done accurately and respectfully."
Presley and Butler would appear together for an interview with 20/20 ahead of the film's premiere.
"He honored him in every way possible that you could possibly honor him."
Butler and Luhrmann introduced Presley, her daughters, and her mother ahead of
a ceremony wherein the women put their handprints in cement at Grauman's Chinese
Theater. And Presley participated in the film's promotional tour,
where she got to know other members of the cast and their families. After her death, Tom Hanks'
wife Rita Wilson shared a tribute on Instagram, recalling their time together on the tour.
Her last appearances
The beginning of 2023 saw Graceland celebrating what would have been Elvis Presley's 88th
birthday for four days straight. The house's official website advertised, among other events,
a performance by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and a special 50th-anniversary screening of the
televised concert "Aloha from Hawaii." Also on hand was Lisa Marie Presley for an early
morning speech on January 8, her father's actual birthday. She told the many fans in attendance,
"You're the only people who can bring me out of my house."
But Presley would step out again not long after, to support the biopic "Elvis" at the 2023 Golden
Globes. She popped up behind Austin Butler as he was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight,
and was interviewed herself by Billy Bush for ExtraTV. She was described
as "unsteady" in Extra's title for the video, in which she held onto
her friend Jerry Schilling. Presley passed away only two days later.
Health rumors
To the extent that Lisa Marie Presley was in the public eye in 2022,
her appearance and behavior invited commentary and rumor. After her death,
tabloids and gossip sites began circulating allegations about her health. The Sun drew
on anonymous claims that Presley had become a recluse after her son's death,
reliant on her surviving children and ex-husband Danny Keough for support. The same sources
claimed that Presley's inner circle feared she would echo her father in dying prematurely.
TMZ's sources claimed that, following her son's death,
Presley fell back into an opioid addiction she had fought to overcome in the past. Her
behavior during the 2023 Golden Globes, where she held onto friend Jerry Schilling's arm,
was pointed to as evidence. She was also alleged to have undergone plastic surgery to improve her
appearance before the ceremony, a campaign said to have been aided by weight loss medication.
Family tensions
Shortly after Lisa Marie Presley's death, her mother Priscilla challenged the terms
of her last will and testament, alleging possible forgery. The dispute potentially
set Priscilla against her granddaughter Riley Keough, whom Lisa Marie Presley had
named as successor trustee of her living trust, replacing Priscilla. Various tabloids insinuated
that Presley had been at odds with her mother, and other members of the family, before her death.
According to a TMZ documentary, Lisa Marie and Priscilla had supposedly fallen out to
the point where they had no relationship to speak of. Any shows of affection during a
promotion related to the "Elvis" biopic, or at Presley's funeral and memorial, were for public
display. Presley was also said to be estranged from one former husband, Michael Lockwood,
who had a particularly difficult relationship with another of Presley's exes, Danny Keough.
The same documentary also claimed that Presley took out three life insurance policies shortly
before her death, allowing her to leave an estate worth several million dollars to be divided among
her three daughters. Their own future was marked by questions concerning custody and potential
future contact between the wider family, and her two youngest daughters by Lockwood.
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