Priscilla Presley's Tragic, Real Life Story Will Break Your Heart

This article contains references to sexual assault and suicide.

It's hard to separate Priscilla Presley from the rosy myth of her life as Elvis Presley's one-time (yet eternal) lover. From the outside, her story has always appeared to be almost cinematic, with fairytale beginnings, a front-row seat to the fame and fortunes of one of the world's biggest music icons, and a high seat in pop culture lore. But as one inches closer and deeper into her reality, the cracks in the facade become increasingly apparent and the realization strikes that her life has often been romanticized far beyond the darker truths she actually lived through. In more ways than one, Priscilla's journey from a girl with a fairly unstable childhood to a legendary figure surrounded by grief and loss has tragic overtones.

Priscilla's turbulent, lifelong relationship with Elvis has always taken precedence over other stirring details from her life — and understandably so. She met the "King of Rock and Roll" when she was only 14 and their relationship continued long beyond Elvis' death in 1977, as she took over responsibility to preserve her late ex-husband's estate and legacy. "I missed my teenage years but I was in a whole other life that was scarier," she once told The Guardian, summarizing the strange paradox she lived through. At the time of this writing, she is still inextricably linked to the yesteryear excesses that defined her youth by virtue of her last name. Some of these details about Priscilla Presley's real life story might just break your heart.

Priscilla Presley's early years weren't tragic in the sense that her future daughter Lisa Marie Presley's sad childhood would turn out to be, but it was marked by instability of a different kind. Her father, James Wagner, was a Navy pilot who died in a plane crash when Priscilla was 6 months old. Her mother eventually remarried Air Force officer Joseph Paul Beaulieu and little Priscilla, unaware of the initial loss in her family, embraced him as the only father she ever knew. She found out the truth about her biological father years later.

Since military life meant frequent relocations, Priscilla hardly found time to settle in one place before they had to move again. "We moved around a lot, and I didn't stay in one school long enough to make close friends," she told The Wall Street Journal. "I was quite shy when I was young, and I dreaded lunchtime at school. I often ate alone." In one especially peculiar chapter from her life in West Germany — which is where Priscilla eventually met Elvis Presley — the family settled into an apartment building that they later found out was a bordello. "The location did little to help me to adjust," Priscilla wrote in her 1985 memoir "Elvis and Me."

When Priscilla Presley (then Beaulieu) met Elvis Presley, she was 14 years old, in school, and a huge fan of the music sensation, who was 24 and stationed in West Germany for his military service. The two met at a party in 1959 and Elvis took an immediate liking to a teenage Priscilla. Even at the time – and more so in retrospect — this early point in their relationship attracted criticism from commentators, considering that Priscilla was still a minor when their romance began. In fact, Priscilla's father was initially opposed to their affair but things progressed anyway.

As Elvis and Priscilla grew closer, another deeply troubling question loomed over their relationship — in particular, the sexual nature of it. Given their age gap, the nature of intimacy in the early period of their relationship led to widespread speculation, though Priscilla insisted in later years that the couple did not have sex until their marriage in 1967. Still in high school, Priscilla eventually moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to live with Elvis. Her studies took a backseat as she adjusted to her new life as the partner of America's biggest rock star, controversially molding herself into the woman Elvis wanted her to be. 

Elvis and Priscilla Presley's marriage was painted as the ultimate fairytale romance of its time. But that veneer of perfection slowly lifted as deep-rooted troubles in their relationship became apparent. The atmosphere within the Presley household seemed to have been violent sometimes, according to Priscilla herself. "If he saw somebody he didn't like on the TV, he'd get his gun out and blow it up," she once recounted to People. There are also candid bits in "Elvis and Me" that raise concerns today, especially a sensitive moment she wrote about where Elvis allegedly forced himself on her.

As Elvis' career went from milestone to milestone, the power imbalance in the couple's marriage only deepened, with Priscilla being groomed into his perfect arm candy. "He taught me everything: how to dress, how to walk, how to apply make-up and wear my hair, how to behave, how to return love — his way," she wrote in her memoir. Through all this role-playing, Priscilla lived in constant worry about the torrential female attention her husband received. It likely did little to help her self-esteem when Elvis stopped having sex with her after Lisa Marie Presley's birth in 1968 because, as she wrote in her book, "He had never been able to make love to a woman who had a child."

As the world remained awestruck by the glittering spectacle of Elvis Presley's life, Priscilla Presley braved a different reality inside the four walls of her home. Her husband's status as the object of desire for millions meant the threat of him falling for other women was ever-present. Already at the time, Elvis was linked romantically to a string of co-stars — from Ann-Margret to Barbara Leigh — and Priscilla shouldered the open secret that Elvis hadn't been faithful to her either before or after their marriage. "Not that he had someone special, but when you're in the entertainment business, there is always that, and I tried to turn my back to that," she revealed on "Sunday Night" decades later (via YouTube). 

Meanwhile, Elvis' drug habit also loomed large in the picture, having started during his days in the military. It slowly spiraled out of hand, pulling Priscilla down with it. "To help me adapt to the fast paced and unusual hours I would join Elvis and the others in taking amphetamines and sleeping pills," she wrote in a piece for People about her early years with Elvis. As Elvis' addictions grew, Priscilla tried to intervene, even going so far as to hide his pills in the wake of concerns around his health. Years of such strain chipped away at their marriage and the rock 'n' roll couple ultimately divorced in 1973. 

Lisa Marie Presley was 4 years old when Elvis and Priscilla Presley got divorced. While they maintained some semblance of co-parenting their only child in the years that followed, it was Priscilla who took on the role of primary caregiver for Lisa Marie. "We were very civil and we really wanted him to stay in her life and they spent plenty of time together," Priscilla told The Guardian about her post-divorce dynamics with Elvis. The mother and daughter took up residence in Los Angeles, where Priscilla raised Lisa Marie with a firm hand — complete with limited pocket money and nighttime curfews — in a bid to give her a regular childhood.

"The most difficult part of being a single parent [was] being mother, father, friend and disciplinarian for her. How could I take any disciplinary action without destroying her trust in me?" Priscilla once reflected to Life magazine (via People). She also juggled roles outside the house as a businesswoman, starting her own boutique called Bis and Beau in Beverly Hills during the '70s that drew a sizable A-lister clientele. Between trying to find her professional footing and fulfilling responsibilities as a mother, Priscilla also tried to navigate her romantic life with karate instructor Mike Stone, whom she allegedly had an affair with during her marriage to Elvis. 

Elvis Presley's death in 1977 sent shockwaves around the world. Within the Presley family, the tragedy naturally cut deeper — especially for Priscilla Presley, who couldn't initially digest the news. "I was still shocked. It was just too hard to believe," she said on "Today" as she recalled the day of Elvis' funeral. "Going out the gates in the limo and seeing the streets lined up on both sides all the way to the cemetery. You'd see glimpses, you'd see people crying, hysterical, fainting." Sure enough, thousands had gathered at Graceland to bid "the king" farewell. But at the quiet center of all the grief stood Priscilla, with all her lifelong love and history with Elvis. 

As speculation surrounding Elvis' death continued to emerge in the press, Priscilla cut through the noise to offer a personal, touching account of Elvis' final days. The former couple had apparently been in touch over the phone, with Priscilla writing about their last call in "Elvis and Me." "His mood had been good," she wrote. "I'd have said so much more: things I wanted to say and never had, things I'd held inside for so many years because the timing was always wrong." 

After the death of Elvis Presley, Priscilla Presley turned a major corner. In the 1980s, she began charting a career that diverged from her husband's colossal fame, by joining show business herself. She started with unmemorable gigs on television, until she hit the jackpot as a series regular on the soap opera "Dallas." The show brought renewed attention, and even awards, to Priscilla's celebrity — this time of her own accord. Then in 1988, she went on to immortalize her place in film history by starring in "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!"

The film received wide acclaim and spawned two sequels, for which Priscilla reprised her role as the ravishing Jane Spencer. "I didn't think I'd go from that into something like this," she told the Los Angeles Times after her debut, reflecting on her turn away from spending her life in Elvis' shadow. But public perception toward Priscilla's newfound fame remained warped and she was all too aware of the narrative that her famous last name had given her a foot in the door. The reality, she said, was far different. "It's tougher for me because of who I am. So it seems like I'm always proving myself and having to fight a little bit harder for parts than everyone else." 

The attention that once celebrated Priscilla Presley for her timeless beauty turned harsh after the turn of the millennium. The shift in opinion came about following a botched cosmetic procedure she underwent at the hands of a fake doctor, which left her appearance visibly altered. Sometime in the early 2000s, Priscilla had consulted Daniel Serrano whose clientele apparently spanned the breadth of Los Angeles' Hollywood elite. The Argentine native only held a nurse license at the time of his dealings with Priscilla and the sham was revealed too late, when he had already injected the actor with cheap industrial low-grade silicone. 

TMZ claimed Serrano had smuggled the drugs into the United States and managed to involve notables like Shawn King and Diane Alexander in his scheme. He was eventually convicted and deported to Argentina. The media response to Priscilla's changed face was torrential, with fans and tabloids coming down hard on her. Even as the world scrutinized her "plastic surgery disaster," she maintained a dignified front, offering only a rare acknowledgment of the episode in one public statement. "Priscilla Presley was one of many documented victims of Dr. Serrano ... Ms. Presley dealt with this matter years ago and everything is well" (via Fox News).

In 2020, the Presley family received a tragic blow with the death of Benjamin Keough, Lisa Marie Presley's son. The grandson of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, Keough was 27 when he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Calabasas, with the autopsy report ruling his death as suicide. Priscilla took to Facebook to mourn the loss, writing, "These are some of the darkest days of my family's life ... Trying to put all the pieces together of all the possible whys has penetrated my soul." While Benjamin generally kept a low profile, he did on occasion accompany his mother and grandmother to momentous public events, such as his grandfather's milestone 75th birthday memorial in Memphis, Tennessee.

While the family did not expand on the reasons behind Benjamin's suicide, reports suggested that he had struggled with his mental health and the weight of living up to the Presley legacy. "That kind of pressure is definitely a part of what happened," his friend and musician Brandon Howard told People. "It's almost like you're pressured into having to be a musician, having to be an actor." Given his heritage, it did appear that musical talent ran naturally in Benjamin's blood, evident in a $5 million deal he reportedly struck with Universal Music during his teen years. However, the deal didn't materialize in new music from the Presley scion, who seemed more inclined to chart his own path outside his family's fame.

Priscilla Presley's sorrows didn't stop with the death of her grandson. A year after the tragedy, the legendary figure lost her mother Anna Lillian Iversen, with whom she was incredibly close. Priscilla made the announcement on social media, praising the selfless life she lived. "Every night I'd play Elvis' gospel music to her," she told People, describing her emotional final days with her mother. "She was basically in a coma, but she would just touch my finger so I knew that she was there." Anna had been Priscilla's only surviving parent, following the death of her step-father Joseph Paul Beaulieu in 2018. 

A blow bigger than the death of her aged mother awaited Priscilla in 2023, with the sudden passing of her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. The only child she had with rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie was 54 when complications from an old bariatric surgery cut her life short. Her death shocked the world, leaving Priscilla in the throes of unimaginable grief. "It's like a large part of your life is taken away," she reflected on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" less than a year after her daughter's death. Talking about the string of deaths in her family, she said, "It was unbearable. I lost my mother, I lost my grandson, and I lost my daughter. ... It's still shocking that we don't have her." 

For years, Priscilla Presley has been behind the wheel of management at the Elvis Presley estate. Given the enormity of the legacy and money attached to it, that journey has hardly been smooth, mired forever in public disputes and internal conflicts. She first took over the reins of the estate after the death of her husband in 1977, maneuvering expertly through legal entanglements and saving it from becoming a dwindling legacy on the brink of financial collapse. Priscilla's prudent decisions turned the Elvis estate into a multimillion-dollar empire, with their family home, Graceland, at the heart of it.

In the early 2000s, she stood witness to her daughter Lisa Marie Presley — the sole inheritor of Elvis' fortunes — selling off a majority 85% of her share of Elvis Presley Enterprises in a nearly $100 million deal that shifted control out of the Presley family. A few years later, Lisa Marie privately made some legal amendments to remove Priscilla as a co-trustee — something Priscilla only discovered after Lisa Marie's death – and along the way also sued her former business manager for alleged mismanagement of her inheritance. In 2023, following Lisa Marie's death, Priscilla contested the trust amendment amid media speculation over the disputed family legacy. The case ended in a settlement that granted sole trustee rights to her granddaughter Riley Keough, while Priscilla received some financial concessions and retained an advisory role. 

Priscilla Presley's financial troubles extended beyond the high-stakes disputes within the Presley estate. In a 2024 lawsuit, the "Naked Gun" star claimed she was cheated out of more than $1 million by a woman named Brigitte Kruse, an auctioneer and one-time friend who allegedly took advantage of her trust. Kruse came into Priscilla's orbit in 2021, and because of her background in auctioning Elvis memorabilia, the two grew close. Kruse and her associates apparently steeped themselves deep into Priscilla's financial handlings by convincing the celebrity that her former management was substandard. 

Priscilla claimed that she was duped into signing papers that gave the accused access to 80% of her income and that there was gross mismanagement of funds behind the scenes. According to court documents (via People), as part of the alleged elder abuse scheme, "the Defendants were able to fraudulently induce [Priscilla] into giving them power of attorney, control over her family and personal trusts, and control over her bank accounts." In 2025, Rolling Stone released a bombshell video of Priscilla signing the disputed contract before Kruse and others in her team, saying she was doing it of her own free will and that she trusted them.

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