As the world mourns the death of Lisa Marie Presley at the age of 54, many are looking back at the musician and mother’s relationship with her own famous parents — Elvis and Priscilla Presley. The Presley family confirmed the news of Lisa Marie’s death on Thursday in a statement.
“Priscilla Presley and the Presley family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Lisa Marie,” a rep for the family confirmed to ET. “They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”
Lisa Marie was rushed to the hospital on Jan. 12 after going into full cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, California. Responders performed CPR before transporting her to the hospital. ET had spoken with the musician just days before at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards.
Lisa Marie was born exactly nine months after Elvis and Priscilla tied the knot in May 1967 and was just nine years old when her iconic father died in 1977.
“The nurse brought her into my room and I cradled her in my arms. She was so tiny, so beautiful,” Priscilla wrote in Elvis and Me. “Elvis came into the room and kissed me, thrilled that we had had a perfectly normal, healthy baby. Then he took us both in his arms and held us.”
Through the years, Lisa Marie has shared many memories of her parents, especially her relationship with her late father.
Speaking with CNN’s Larry King in 2003, Lisa Marie said of her father, “Very adoring, very sweet. I knew that he was crazy about me. He let me sing for him at the table.”
In a documentary about her late father, she added, “He was very protective, very adoring, very watchful. I knew that I was loved. There was no doubt about that. It was something that was easy to come by, honestly, but it was very apparent to me.”
During a 2018 interview on the British show Lorraine, Lisa Marie recalled seeing a quote from her father about how becoming a parent was his biggest accomplishment.
“I knew there was a great love there. I knew there was a really strong connection since the minute I can remember,” she shared. “I felt like I really was the most important thing to him, and I felt like our relationship was special.”
In her 2013 appearance on The Talk, Lisa Marie got candid about her mom and dad’s different styles of parenting, noting that Elvis was “not strict at all” while Priscilla was “really strict.”
“I really gave it to my mom, pretty badly,” Lisa Marie admitted of Priscilla. “We are now very close, but when I was younger, it was difficult to have a relationship.”
She noted that she’d “have the run of Graceland,” Elvis’ massive home, while he slept all day.
“I knew that nobody was going to tell me what to do because they would get fired. I was truly a terror, to be honest,” she admitted.
Of Elvis doting on her, Lisa Marie said in 2015, “I didn’t look at it as being spoiled. I think my father loved me and didn’t get to spend a lot of time with me so when he did, he went out of his way to do whatever he needed to do to make me seem happy.”
In that same interview with Stina Dabrowski, Lisa Marie explained, “My mother was very level-headed and very set on me being level-headed, so she’d have to undo whatever was done if I went to Graceland and spent two weeks being a tyrant.”
As for which parent she most favored in her own behavior and mannerisms, Lisa Marie said on The Talk, “I think probably more my father. I lean toward that side of my family a little bit, although I have my mom’s strength. His personality and his intensity levels I can emulate pretty well, not intentionally, and obviously mannerisms, which I don’t even know that I have, but yeah.”
In 2012, Lisa Marie told ET of carrying on her father’s legacy, “He’s still alive in all of us, and we’re carrying on for him.”
ET spoke with Lisa Marie just days before her death at the Golden Globes, where she was supporting actor Austin Butler. The breakout star played her father in the 2022 Baz Luhrmann film, Elvis, and was nominated for his first Golden Globe.
“It was mind-blowing, truly mind-blowing. I really didn’t know what to do with myself after I saw it,” Lisa Marie told ET of his performance. “I had to take five days to process it because it was so incredible and so spot-on and so authentic. I can’t even describe.”
Lisa Marie is survived by her 77-year-old mother, Priscilla, and her daughters, 33-year-old Riley, and 14-year-old twins Finley and Harper Lockwood. Her son, Benjamin, died in 2020 by suicide.
