On the surface, Elvis Presley may have had it all.
However, the King of Rock and Roll's marriage to Priscilla Presley was mostly tumultuous,
with drug use, infidelity and loneliness dominating the couple's time together.
This is the true story about Elvis' relationship with Priscilla Presley.
Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu's relationship started in the Summer of 1959, in West Germany
of all places.
Priscilla's father, Paul, was in the Air Force at the time and had just been transferred
to West Germany.
She was just 14, having recently won the title of Queen of Del Valley Junior High, and was
nervous about moving to a new place.
Luckily, Elvis was also stationed in West Germany, not far from the base that the Beaulieu
family would be staying at.
Elvis was drafted into the service in 1958, and during his time in Germany, he was part
of the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32d Armor.
Priscilla was introduced to Elvis by Currie Grant, a member of the Air Force stationed
at the same base as her family.
She was incredibly nervous about meeting the star for the first time, and thought that
because of her young age she wouldn't make an impression on him.
She was dead wrong.
Presley immediately took a liking to Priscilla, performing several songs for her on his piano
and introducing her to his grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley.
She did not return home until 2 in the morning, much to her parents' chagrin, and she was
already starting to fall in love.
When Elvis called Grant to arrange another meeting a few days later, Priscilla was "ecstatic"
about seeing him again.
"I mean he just connected.
He connected."
Their relationship, notoriously turbulent, got off to a rocky start from the very beginning.
According to biographer Peter Guralnick in Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley,
the rock icon had started dating a 19-year-old German woman named Elisabeth Stefaniak before
he met Priscilla.
Elvis and Stefaniak had started seeing each other around Thanksgiving time in 1958, just
months after Elvis was stationed in Germany.
By Valentine's Day 1959, Stefaniak was living with Elvis in his home on the base.
She claims they refrained from having "full intercourse," due to Elvis' fear of pregnancy,
but they slept together every night and "fooled around."
When Elvis started seeing Priscilla Beaulieu the following Summer in 1959, he was still
sleeping with Stefaniak every night.
She became "intensely jealous" of the blooming relationship, and especially of Priscilla.
However, it was becoming clear to Stefaniak that Elvis was much more interested in his
new friend than he was in her.
He started devoting more and more of his intimate time with Priscilla, and left Stefaniak "dangling
on a string."
As one might expect, adapting to the new lifestyle proved to be tough at times for Priscilla
Beaulieu.
The hustle-and-bustle of everyday life as an Air Force brat was certainly one thing,
but dating one of the most famous musicians and movie stars in the world was quite another.
During Christmas of 1962, 17-year-old Priscilla went to see Elvis Presley for a quick visit.
Since they had limited time together, they tried to cram in as many activities as possible,
and all of the excitement started to wear her out.
According to Guralnick's biography Careless Love, Elvis gave Priscilla "two big red pills
to relax," and she ended up being knocked out for two days.
This was the second time that she had used drugs with Elvis.
Earlier in the summer, Priscilla had taken a trip to Las Vegas with Elvis and his entourage.
Between limousine rides and playing blackjack, Priscilla found herself overwhelmed by the
excitement.
According to Priscilla's autobiography Elvis and Me, she began using "amphetamines and
sleeping pills" in order to keep up.
Elvis himself had started abusing prescription medication during his time in the army, and
by the time he was dating Priscilla, it had only gotten worse.
When Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu started dating it was a whirlwind experience
for the young woman.
She was only 14 at the time and had just started going to high school when the relationship
started.
Not surprisingly, dating the King of Rock 'n Roll sometimes took a toll on her schoolwork.
According to Priscilla's autobiography, when she first went back to school after a date
with the star, she could not pay attention because her thoughts were "entirely on Elvis."
Instead of focusing on her schoolwork, she was imagining spending time with the young
rockstar and trying to relive the memories from the previous night.
"I occupied a lot of his time.
I mean, he had an affinity toward me, you know, a great care for me."
In 1963, after the Beaulieu family moved back stateside, she convinced her parents to let
her move to Memphis, Tennessee so that she could be closer to Elvis.
However, Prisicilla still had to keep going to school, which she tried to do while seeing
Elvis nearly every night.
During a 2022 interview with the Daily Mail, she described the challenges of trying to
balance the two together.
The couple would frequently stay out until the early hours of the morning, and she would
barely have time for a few hours of sleep before going off to school.
Prisicilla told the Daily Mail,
"[As a result,] I didn't do well with the grades."
Still, it was worth it for her if it meant she could spend her free time with Elvis.
"We had a really close relationship."
In the summer of 1963, Elvis Presley returned to Hollywood to start shooting the film Viva
Las Vegas, which would star Ann-Margret, a 22-year-old actress who was just starting
to skyrocket to popularity.
The two started to spend a considerable amount of time together, and when the press got wind
they immediately dubbed the two a couple and published an article about their "romance."
However, Elvis had started seeing Priscilla Beaulieu again earlier in the year on a trip
to Las Vegas, and she was living in his parents' home in Memphis, Tennessee.
Priscilla was becoming worried about the increasing number of headlines about Elvis and Ann-Margret
and wanted to visit him on set, but he kept making excuses for why she could not come
and see him in person.
Finally, she demanded to come and visit the set after months of excuses and suspicions.
The visit initially started well, but on the last day of production, the press published
a story titled "Elvis Wins Love of Ann-Margret," in which Ann-Margret claimed in an interview
to be engaged to Elvis.
Ann-Margret later said that the press had fabricated the entire interview, but the damage
was already done.
Elvis managed to calm down Priscilla, who was understandably upset, by promising to
never see the young actress again.
In reality, he continued to engage in secret communications with Ann-Margaret for months.
"I mean he spent more time kissing women in the crowd than he did singing.
Was that difficult to watch?"
"Yeah"
Elvis Presley and his entourage returned to Graceland in late November to settle down
for the 1966 Christmas season.
They arrived to a fully made-up nativity scene at the house, and all the residents came out
to greet them in a very joyous affair.
Elvis ended up donating over $100,000 over the course of the year, highlighted by gifts
to all of the Memphis charities during the holiday season.
His friends noted that he seemed to be in great spirits at the time, and he started
spending a lot of time in the barn with the horses on his ranch.
Both Priscilla Beaulieu and her father had been sending Elvis signals for months that
they were expecting marriage to happen soon, and Elvis himself had been considering the
possibility for a while.
Finally, just days before Christmas, Elvis finally asked Priscilla to marry him.
On May 1, 1967, Priscilla Beaulieu finally became Priscilla Presley.
According to close friend Jerry Schilling in his biography Me and a Guy Named Elvis:
My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley, the singer's manager Colonel Tom Parker arranged
the ceremony and made sure it was a very private affair.
Even most of the members of the Memphis Mafia, Elvis' close-knit group of friends and followers,
found themselves without invitations.
They were married at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, one of the premier hotels
on the strip at the time.
The couple entered the hotel through the back entrance to avoid attention, and were married
in the very early hours of the morning.
Two MGM photographers were on hand to document the occasion.
After their May wedding in Las Vegas, the happy couple immediately embarked on what
would be an extravagant honeymoon.
In her autobiography, Elvis and Me, Priscilla Presley recalled how Elvis was able to borrow
the personal Learjet of famous musician Frank Sinatra, to fly them from Sin City to Palm
Springs, California.
They were immediately greeted by a throng of reporters, both at the airport and outside
the house they were staying at.
They had not slept in nearly two days by this point, but they were both elated with the
joy of being newlyweds.
The honeymoon was special for both of them, and Priscilla Presley, still just 21 at the
time, was finally feeling accepted by both her husband and the mainstream press.
"If I could say to you, right, you can relive one moment with Elvis again, which one would
you choose?"
"Oh, probably our wedding."
Nine months to the day that they had their wedding, Elvis and Priscilla Presley welcomed
their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, to the world.
She was born on February 1, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, at her parents' home at the Graceland
estate.
Lisa Marie lived there until she was four years old, at which point her parents got
divorced and separated.
However, Elvis and Priscilla Presley had joint custody of her, so she was still able to split
her time between the two of them, at least for a few years.
Tragically, Lisa Marie Presley was only nine when her father died of apparent heart failure,
so she grew up not really knowing him.
However, their lives share some similarities.
Both Lisa Marie and her dad had issues with addiction dating back to their younger years,
with Lisa Marie using drugs by the time she was just 17.
On a happier note, she also had a successful music career like her father, though not nearly
at the same level.
While casual fans of Elvis Presley might not know this, he was actually a dedicated practitioner
of karate.
After he married Priscilla, Elvis and his wife started doing karate together.
At first, Priscilla just did it to spend time with her husband.
The more Priscilla got involved in karate, however, the more she fell in love with it.
Although karate initially seemed to bring the couple together, by 1972 it was beginning
to have the opposite effect.
Priscilla started to take private lessons with expert trainer Mike Stone.
Eventually, the private lessons turned intimate.
Prisicilla wrote in her autobiography:
"My relationship with Mike had now developed into an affair."
She was torn by her intense love for her husband, and her feelings of neglect and loneliness
that had started to develop over the past years.
A short time later, Priscilla Presley left her husband for the final time.
"He was the love of my life, truly.
If anything I left because-- I needed to find out what the world was like, really…"
Though the couple entered into their marriage in May 1967 with the intention of staying
together forever, by 1973 the relationship was in tatters.
After her affair with Mike Stone and their subsequent breakup a few months later, Priscilla
and Elvis Presley rarely saw each other.
According to Elvis and Me, they still chatted over the phone, but they knew the relationship
was over.
He had started dating a new woman, Linda Thompson, by the time the divorce proceedings began
at the end of the year.
He was incredibly emotional during the divorce hearing, and Priscilla Presley comforted her
husband throughout the ordeal.
"As much as he wanted to be married and have a family I don't know if he was ever cut to
be married."
Elvis and Priscilla Presley's marriage had been tumultuous for years, as issues relating
to intimacy, infidelity, and loneliness began to overwhelm them.
The divorce was made final on October 9, 1973, but it was hardly the end of their relationship.
The two agreed to split custody of their daughter Lisa Marie Presley, and Elvis agreed to give
his ex-wife a $100,000 lump sum settlement, along with $1,500 in monthly support.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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