CNN
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As the only daughter of the late Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, singer Lisa Marie Presley has spent her life in the spotlight since the beginning.
and the general interest in her life—from her marriage to her private tragedies—never waned until, like her father, she was taken very early on.
Lisa Marie Presley died Thursday of an apparent heart attack. She was 54 years old.
“Priscilla Presley and the Presley family are devastated and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Lisa Marie,” the family statement, provided to CNN, read. “They are so grateful for the support, love, and prayers from everyone, and they ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”
Days before she was admitted to the hospital, Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley attended the Golden Globe Awards to support Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” starring actor Austin Butler, who won an award for his portrayal of the king.
The life of Lisa Marie Presley in pictures
Born at the height of Elvis’ fame in 1968, Lisa Marie Presley was born as the princess of the man celebrated as the “King of Rock and Roll.”
Elvis and Priscilla Presley divorced in 1972 when their daughter was four years old, and she was only nine when her father died in 1977. He was 42 years old.
Soon, she began acting and experimenting with drugs, which led to her mother sending her to a series of private schools, including a boarding school in Ojai. Lisa Marie Presley noted to the Los Angeles Times in 2003 that as a child, “she was kind of a lonely, sad, weird child.”
“I had a real self-destructive situation for a while,” she told the paper. “I don’t really fit in at school. I didn’t really have any direction.”
She was also the sole heir to Elvis’ estate, as well as his sprawling Memphis, Tennessee Graceland mansion. However, her father’s looming great legacy did not steer her away from her desire to pursue a career in music in her own right.
Lisa Marie Presley launched her career in 2003 with her debut studio album To Whom It May Concern, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and was certified Gold that summer. She wrote nearly all of the album’s lyrics and co-wrote every tune.
At the time, Lisa Marie Presley told Larry King that she had to “stop” her feelings of pressure and comparison to her father, the legendary singer.
“If I had been thinking about it, worrying about it, which I’ve been doing for so long, I wouldn’t have done what was a kind of fungus in my heart, in my soul,” she said. “So I had to stop worrying about it, it was pretty scary otherwise.”
Around the same time, Lisa Marie Presley pondered whether her famous name was a hindrance or a help, telling Playboy that she “didn’t have the tabloids come after me every week.”
But, she added, she would “never take back any part of who I am or where I came from”.
“I would never want to be a part of anything else,” she said. “I am proud and proud of my family and my father.”
This first record was followed by two more albums, 2005’s “Now What” and 2012’s “Storm & Grace”.
In parallel to her musical endeavors, Lisa Marie Presley has been married four times, including to music star Michael Jackson and actor Nicolas Cage.
She married musician Danny Keough in 1988, with whom she has a daughter, Riley Keough, and a son, Benjamin Storm Keough.
The couple divorced in May 1994, and nearly three weeks later, Lisa Marie Presley married Jackson in a ceremony that made headlines around the world.
She referred to Jackson in a 2003 interview with ABC News and Diane Sawyer: “When he wants to lock you up, when he wants to excite you or captivate you, or you know, whatever he wants to do with you, he can do it.” “You poor, sweet, misunderstood, I’ll save you.” “…I fell in love with him.”
Their marriage ended in January 1996.
Two years later, she married Cage after meeting him at a party, but she only stayed married to him for three months, from August to November of 2002. Their divorce was finalized in 2004.
Her fourth marriage came in 2006 to guitarist, music producer and director Michael Lockwood. Finlay married twins Aaron Love Lockwood and Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood in 2008. They divorced in 2016.
In 2020, Lisa Marie Presley’s son Benjamin Keough died by suicide at the age of 27. Last July, she celebrated the two-year anniversary of Keough’s death on Instagram, sharing a photo of their matching foot tattoos.
This past September, she wrote an article for National Grief Awareness Day, in which she opened up about the news of the loss of her son.
“My daughters life and my three daughters life as we knew it were completely imploded and destroyed by his death. We are living in this all. Single. Today,” she wrote. Grief is something you have to carry with you for the rest of your life, despite what some people or our culture would like us to believe. You don’t “get over it,” you don’t “move on,” period.
Presley also said in her article that she found comfort in the company of people who faced similar tragedy, adding that her daughters help her sustain it.
“I keep going for my girls,” she wrote. “I keep going because my son made it clear in his final moments that taking care of and looking after his little sisters was top of mind and in his mind. He absolutely adored them and they were him.”
Tributes poured in for Lisa Marie Presley as news of her death spread.
“This is devastating news. Lisa was the biggest laugh out of anyone I’ve ever met. She lit up every room, and I’m heartbroken,” Cage said in a statement made by his manager, Mike Nealon, on Thursday. her son Benjamin.”
On Friday, Luhrmann took to Instagram to pay tribute to Lisa Marie Presley, saying, “We will miss your warmth, your smile, and your love.”
“For the past year, the entire Elvis family and I have felt privileged to embrace Lisa Marie’s gentle embrace. People all over the world have been devastated by her sudden and heartbreaking loss.”
Actor John Travolta wrote Thursday that he will miss his friend “but I know I’ll see you again.”
“My love and heart goes out to Riley, Priscilla, Harper and Finley,” he wrote on Instagram.
Actress Leah Remini said she was “saddened by the passing of Lisa Marie Presley”, and added “Lisa’s life was not easy, as some might think”.
She wrote, “I hope she is at peace, and resting with her son and father now.” Twitter.
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“Lisa Marie’s final burial place will be in Graceland, next to her beloved son Ben,” the family representative said in a statement to CNN on Friday.
An earlier version of this story misstated the year Finley Aaron Love Lockwood and Harper Vivian Ann Lockwood were born. It was 2008. The story has been updated to reflect this change.