Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, was born into the limelight.
On Friday, Lisa Marie was rushed to hospital after a reported cardiac arrest. Hours later, her mother confirmed she had died, aged 54.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla said in a statement.
“She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss.”
Born in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, just months after her parents wed, she was the couple’s only child. Priscilla and Elvis divorced in 1973.
Lisa Marie was only nine years of age when Elvis died, aged 42.
Following in her father’s footsteps, Lisa Marie was a singer whose music career began in the late 1990s. In 1997, she duetted her father’s 1969 song Don’t Cry Daddy as a tribute to her father to mark the 20th anniversary of his death.
In the early 2000s she released her debut album To Whom It May Concern (No.5 on the US charts). She followed her debut with Now What (No.9 on the US charts) in 2005 and Storm and Grace in 2012.
Lisa Marie Presley’s tragic loss
In addition to losing her father at a young age, Lisa Marie suffered another tragedy a few years ago.
In July 2020, Benjamin Keough, Lisa Marie’s son with her first husband, musician Danny Keough, took his own life with a shotgun at the age of 27.
Her manager, Roger Widynowski, said she was “heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated” by Benjamin’s death.
Along with Benjamin, Lisa Marie shared another child with Danny, actress Riley Keough.
In 2022, Lisa Marie penned a touching essay about how she had been “living in the horrific reality of its unrelenting grip” since her son’s death to mark National Grief Awareness Day.
“Death is part of life whether we like it or not — and so is grieving,” she wrote in the essay published by PEOPLE.
“There is so much to learn and understand on the subject, but here’s what I know so far: One is that grief does not stop or go away in any sense, a year, or years after the loss.
“Grief is something you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life, in spite of what certain people or our culture wants us to believe. You do not ‘get over it,’ you do not ‘move on,’ period.”
Previous marriages and children
Lisa Marie was married to Danny Keough from 1988 until their divorce in 1994.
Just 20 days later she married Michael Jackson. The two reportedly met in the 1970s when she went to one of his concerts, and they met again through mutual friends decades later.
Lisa Marie supported Michael amid accusations he sexually abused a 13-year-old boy and the two married months after he settled with the family.
The high-profile couple divorced in 1996 as Jackson was again battling child-molestation allegations.
“The person I failed to help is being transferred right now to the LA County Coroner’s office for his autopsy,” Lisa Marie wrote in the wake of Michael’s death.
“All of my indifference and detachment that I worked so hard to achieve over the years has just gone into the bowels of hell and right now I am gutted.”
Presley next married actor Nicholas Cage, a huge fan of her father, in 2002. He filed for divorce four months later.
Her fourth marriage was to her guitarist and music producer Michael Lockwood. Together, they had twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, 14.
Their divorce was finalised in 2021.
Lisa Marie’s last appearance
Just two days before her death, Lisa Marie attended the 2023 Golden Globes ceremony. She was there supporting Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, the hit biopic about her father.
Austin Butler, who portrayed Elvis Presley in the film went on to win Best Actor in a drama that same night.
“I also want to thank our incredible producers and Warner Bros and the Presley family, thank you guys, thank you for opening your hearts, your memories, your home to me,” the actor said, when accepting the award.
“Lisa Marie, Priscilla, I love you forever.”
-with AAP
