Priscilla Presley became overwhelmed with emotion while discussing the loss of her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, in a new interview.
The 78-year-old sits down with Piers Morgan for a conversation airing Thursday on TalkTV, at one point getting tearful while covering her face with her hands. “Don’t talk anymore about it,” she tells the host after answering questions about the time leading up to Lisa Marie’s death.
“It was unbearable,” she says in a preview clip published by The Daily Mail. “I lost my mother, I lost my grandson, and I lost my daughter. It’s still shocking that we don’t have her.”
Lisa Marie died on Jan. 12, 2023. She was 54.
At the time, Priscilla says, Lisa Marie was still reeling from the death of her son, Benjamin Keough, by suicide on July 12, 2020. He was 27.
“Losing Ben was, that was the hardest thing for her,” Priscilla recalls. “He was the love of her life. That child, she adored him. She would do anything for him.”
Reflecting on one of her final moments with Lisa Marie, a few months prior to her death, Priscilla says that talk had turned to Benjamin and the immense grief his mother continued to suffer years later.
“We were in Memphis, we were sitting up in the suite and she said, ‘Mom, you know, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to be here,'” Priscilla recalls. “I go, ‘What are you talking about?’ You know, ‘My Ben.’ She’d go on about Ben and how she is still grieving.”
Asked by Morgan whether she believed Lisa Marie had been feeling suicidal at the time, she replied: “I think so.”
According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office, Lisa Marie died from sequelae of small bowel obstruction.
In an August interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Priscilla said that she knew something was off with Lisa Marie shortly before her death.
“I did know there was something not right,” Priscilla said at the time, as she was interviewed alongside filmmaker Sofia Coppola to promote Priscilla, the film based on her Elvis and Me memoir.
Still, she remembered being with her daughter and having a laugh at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles as they celebrated Austin Butler’s Golden Globes win for his role as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s film, Elvis. However, the outing was cut short as Lisa Marie said she was experiencing pain.
“We had just gotten there, you go down all these stairs,” Priscilla remembered of the evening. “I tripped a little bit because I had these high heels on, and she started laughing so hard. I started laughing. We hadn’t even had a drink yet. She goes, ‘Oh my God, Mom, you can’t even have a drink.’ It was fun, a fun memory. Then we sat down and ordered drinks, and she says, ‘Mom, my stomach hurts really bad.’ We immediately got up and left.”
Priscilla said that a couple days later, she got a call from Lisa Marie’s ex-husband, Danny Keough, who told her to come to the hospital, but it was too late.
“I got right in the car, but she was already gone,” Priscilla said. “I still can’t believe it. I don’t wish this on any mother.”
Earlier this week, a judge signed off on Priscilla’s settlement with granddaughter Riley Keough regarding Lisa Marie’s estate. Riley, Lisa’s eldest daughter, now owns Graceland — the home of Elvis, which he gave to Lisa Marie when he died — in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the sole trustee of the estate of her late mother.
Lisa Marie is survived by Priscilla, Riley, and her 15-year-old twin daughters, Harper and Finley Lockwood.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
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