Priscilla Presley opened up about the sudden death of her daughter Lisa Marie Presley in an emotional new television appearance.
During an interview on TalkTV’s “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” the 78-year-old actress cried as she recalled losing Lisa Marie, who died of a small bowel obstruction at the age of 54 in January.
“It was unbearable,” Priscilla told Morgan, 58, according to the talk show host’s account of the interview in The Sun. “It’s like a large part of your life is taken away.”
Priscilla Presley opened up about the “unbearable” loss of her daughter Lisa Marie Presley. (Bryan Steffy/WireImage)
Lisa Marie was the only child of Priscilla and Elvis Presley, the rock icon who died of a heart attack at the age of 42 in 1977. During the interview, which aired Thursday night, Priscilla recalled the last time she saw Lisa Marie before her death.
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The pair attended the 80th annual Golden Globe Awards Jan. 10, where they celebrated Austin Butler’s best actor win for the title role in Baz Lurmann’s 2022 biographical drama “Elvis.” Priscilla told Morgan Lisa Marie, who died two days later, appeared ill during the ceremony.
“She didn’t look well that night, and I was concerned,” Priscilla remembered in a clip from the interview shared on Morgan’s X page. “She asked Jerry Schilling, one of my best friends, if he could hold her.
“Her heels were high, but she had worn them before, and I thought ‘Is she OK?’ She didn’t really look that OK. She looked very frail.
“So I let that go. Then we watched the show, and we had a few laughs, and we were all excited about Austin Butler and Baz, and the movie went so well. We were proud of them. Then we started to go, and she said ‘’Mom, do you want to go to Chateau Marmont and have a drink?'”
Priscilla said Lisa Marie told her she was experiencing abdominal pain and left shortly after they arrived at the famed hotel.
“We both had our high heels on and both of us tripped on the staircase, and we started laughing and giggling. Then we went and sat down, and she said, ‘Mom, I have to go, my stomach really hurts,’” Priscilla recalled.
“I go, ‘Of course, are you OK?’ She goes ‘Yes, yes, I just really have to go’. And I go ‘OK, we will get the cars now’. Then I hugged her, and she went her way, and I went mine, and that hug was the last hug I gave her.
“And it’s still shocking that, you know, I don’t — we don’t have her.”
Lisa Marie died of a small bowel obstruction at the age of 54 in January. (Joe Scarnici)
Priscilla recalled that her daughter’s ex-husband Danny Keough called her two days later and told her Lisa Marie was in the hospital and that she needed to get there immediately. She rushed to be by Lisa Marie’s side, but it was too late.
“I thought, ‘Oh, my God, you know, this is not the first time, but I never thought that it was last.'” Priscilla said.
The former “Dallas” star reflected on how Lisa Marie’s death was the third in a string of tragic losses she experienced over the past three years. Priscilla’s mother Anna Iverson died at the age of 95 in August 2021. In July 2020, Lisa Marie’s son and Priscilla’s grandchild Benjamin died by suicide at the age of 27.
“It was unbearable,” Priscilla said. “I lost my mother, I lost my grandson and I lost my daughter.”
Priscilla told Morgan losing Benjamin was “the hardest thing” for Lisa Marie. She recalled that Lisa Marie shared how deeply she continued to grieve her son’s death just a couple of months before she died.
Priscilla recalled the last time she hugged Lisa Marie, two days before her death. (Bryan Steffy/WireImage)
“[He] took his own life, and he was the love of her life,” she said. “That child, she adored him. She would do anything for him, anything. And we were in Memphis, 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.’
“And I go, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘You know, my Ben,’ and she would go on about Ben and how she is still grieving, and this was a couple of months before.”
“And she was feeling almost suicidal herself?” Morgan asked.
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“I think so,” Priscilla replied. “She really, she was almost like, she wanted to go earlier, but the twins were still young, or too young, let’s put it that way.”
In The Sun, Morgan said Priscilla then covered her face as she began to weep and asked if they could stop filming. He said that they paused for a few minutes before resuming the interview.
Lisa Marie shared Benjamin and daughter Riley Keough, 34, with Keough. She was also mother to twin daughters Harper and Finley Lockwood, 15, whom she shared with her ex-husband Michael Lockwood.
During her interview with Morgan, Priscilla also addressed the legal dispute between her and Riley over Lisa Marie’s estate following her death.
In 2016, Lisa Marie had secretly amended her will to replace her business manager and mother as trustees with her oldest children. After Benjamin’s death, Riley became the sole trustee of the estate, which included the family home Graceland in Memphis. In January, Priscilla filed a petition questioning the validity of the amendment.
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Priscilla and the “Daisy Jones and the Six” star reached a legal settlement in May.
“My family has resolved all confusion as it relates to our plea to the court and request for document interpretation after my daughter Lisa Marie’s untimely passing,” Priscilla’s representatives told Fox News Digital in a statement at the time.
“Although the media identified such a plea as a lawsuit, I want to make clear that there was never any lawsuit filed against my beloved granddaughter. As a family, we are pleased that we resolved this together.”
Priscilla and Lisa Marie are pictured with Harper Lockwood, Riley Keough and Finley Lockwood in June 2022. (Getty Images)
Priscilla will receive a lump sum payment of $1 million that will be funded by Lisa Marie’s $25 million life insurance policy, according a copy of the agreement obtained by People magazine. In addition, Keough agreed to pay $400,000 of her grandmother’s legal fees, and Priscilla will receive $100,000 a year as a special adviser to the trust.
According to People, the legal agreement also stated that Priscilla will be buried near Elvis at Graceland after her death.
Fox News Digital has reached out to representatives for Priscilla and Riley for comment.
During the TalkTV interview, Priscilla told Morgan she believes Riley will be a “great” trustee of the estate.
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“I love her,” Priscilla said. “We have always gotten along. It was a little bit of trying to figure out the will, like you normally do, but Riley and I have always been close. I think Riley will be great. She has asked me a few things about what to do. I want to help her with Graceland. She has a great head on her shoulders. I trust her.”
Priscilla also confirmed that she will be buried at Graceland.
“That’s what I want and wanted,” she said.
“And that will happen?” Morgan asked.
“Yes,” Priscilla replied.
