Elvis Presley met Priscilla Presley when she was just 14. She reportedly fell hard for the king of rock and roll but didn’t know if their relationship would evolve further as he was 10 years her senior. Priscilla once admitted it was hard to resist Elvis physically during that time, claiming his “long, deep, passionate kisses and caresses” left her “weak with desire.”
Priscilla Presley’s desire for Elvis Presley began in 1959
Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu met in the late 1950s when he was stationed in Germany as a soldier in the United States Army. She was just 14, and he was 24 when they were first introduced.
Priscilla’s stepfather was stationed in the Air Force nearby. While she was out with her younger brother, a service member approached Priscilla and asked if she’d like to accompany him and his wife to meet Elvis.
In November 1959, she traveled to Bad Nauheim and immediately captured Elvis’ attention. Per Biography, Elvis reportedly told his friend Rex Mansfield that Priscilla was “young enough that I can train her any way I want.”
The second time they met, he invited her to his room, where they kissed. These affectionate gestures sealed the deal for Priscilla.
In Priscilla’s 1985 book Elvis and Me, she revealed her feelings toward the king of rock and roll. “Elvis would take me into his bedroom. We would kiss long, deep, passionate kisses, and his caresses would leave me weak with desire.”
However, Elvis wanted to avoid physically taking their relationship to the next level. Priscilla says his reasons were quite traditional despite their untraditional relationship.
Elvis Presley did not want to have a physical relationship with Priscilla until they were married
Priscilla Presley discussed her early years with Elvis Presley in an interview with Barbara Walters. She revealed that Elvis made an “agreement” with himself. He would wait until his wedding night to consummate his relationship with his wife.
Priscilla explains, “There was an agreement he made with himself. The woman he decided to take for his wife, he would keep her that way (a virgin) until he married her. “
Walters then asks Priscilla why she believed Elvis would be interested in a young girl when he could have any woman. Priscilla responded that “innocence” and the idea she was spellbound by him had something to do with it.
“The inexperience, yes. Elvis had been around Hollywood already. He’d already seen Hollywood starlets,” she explained.
Priscilla continued, “I think in his mind, he thought, ‘Well, I’ll just be with someone and teach her as it comes.’ And I don’t think a lot of older women would have put up with a lot of the things that went on.”
“You know, when you’re young… I listened to him and did what he said,” she concluded.
Elvis and Priscilla married when she was 21
Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s manager, was reportedly worried about the potential for further criticism of the couple’s relationship if they didn’t marry. It was 1966, and Priscilla was 21 and had lived with Elvis full-time since she was 17.
So, just before Christmas in 1966, Elvis proposed, presenting Priscilla with a 3.5-carat diamond ring surrounded by a halo of 20 smaller, detachable diamonds. They were married on May 1, 1967, in Las Vegas. He was 32, and Priscilla was three weeks shy of her 22nd birthday.
Prisiclla became pregnant right away. Nine months after their wedding, the couple welcomed their only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, to their family on Feb. 1, 1968.
The couple were married from 1967 to 1973 before they split. They continued co-parenting Lisa Marie until Elvis’ untimely death in August 1977.