The 9 biggest revelations from Lisa Marie Presley’s posthumous memoir

Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir “From Here to the Great Unknown” was released on October 8.

Lisa Marie Presley’s posthumous memoir “From Here to the Great Unknown” is a candid, revelatory account of her life that gives readers a glimpse into her unique childhood and the challenges she faced as an adult.

Since its release on October 8, the book has made waves. In addition to being selected for Oprah Winfrey’s book club, the memoir also topped Amazon’s bestseller list.

“From Here to the Great Unknown” was completed by Presley’s daughter, Riley Keough, after her death in 2023. The book weaves together both of their voices and is packed with brand-new anecdotes about Presley’s experience as the daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. Here are the most shocking stories from the memoir.

Lisa Marie Presley felt like her mom, Priscilla Presley, didn’t want her.

Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley, and Elvis Presley.

Elvis and Priscilla met when she was 14 and he was 24. They got married in 1967 and welcomed their first and only child together, Lisa Marie, the following year. Priscilla was 22 when she gave birth.

In her memoir, Lisa Marie described her mom’s demeanor as “chilly.”

Lisa Marie said that Priscilla “thought about trying to fall off her horse to cause a miscarriage” when she became pregnant.

“She didn’t want to gain pregnancy weight,” Lisa Marie said. “She thought that wouldn’t be a good look for her as Elvis’ wife. There were so many women after him, all of them beautiful. She wanted his undivided attention.”

Lisa Marie said that Priscilla initially didn’t eat much during the pregnancy, to avoid gaining weight.

“I was a pain in her ass immediately and I always felt she didn’t want me,” Lisa Marie wrote.

Lisa Marie and Priscilla’s relationship was fraught, particularly after Elvis’ death in 1977. Lisa Marie was 9 at the time and her parents had already split up by the time he died.

She said in her memoir that she felt “stuck” with Priscilla afterward.

The mother-daughter duo made amends later in life as adults, and Lisa Marie wrote the 2005 song “Raven” as an homage to Priscilla.

Priscilla Presley didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Lisa Marie had vivid dreams of Elvis, which she called visitations, twice a year after he died.

Elvis Presley performing in 1968.

Lisa Marie said that she was close to her father and his death at 42 years old was devastating. In the years that followed, she still felt a strong connection to him via her dreams.

“The dreams were so real that I would cry when I’d wake up because it felt like I was with him and I hadn’t wanted it to end,” she said. “I’d try so hard to get back to sleep, to be with him again.”

She continued: “I don’t really believe they were dreams. I believe they were visitations.”

Lisa Marie said the dreams didn’t stop until 1992, when her son Benjamin Keough was born.

Presley said that she was molested by Priscilla’s then-boyfriend Michael Edwards.

Lisa Marie Presley in 2015.

Priscilla and Edwards dated for six years, and Lisa Marie described him as “an actor and a model, a dramatic guy with a horrible temper.”

Lisa Marie also said that Priscilla and Edwards got into physical fights “constantly.”

She alleged that Edwards first molested her in her room when she was 10 years old.

“I woke up to find him on his knees next to my bed, running his finger up my leg under the sheets, and if I moved, he stopped — so I moved,” Lisa Marie said.

She alleged that Edwards told her he was teaching her about what would happen when she got older. Lisa Marie said that she told her mom the next day, and Edwards apologized.

“Edwards was sitting on their bed looking very sullen and sulky,” Lisa Marie recalled. “He said, ‘I’m so sorry, but in Europe, that’s how they teach the kids, so that’s what I was doing.'”

Lisa Marie said that the sexual abuse continued.

“Eventually, it became that he would touch me and spank me, telling me not to look — ‘Don’t look at me,’ he’d say, ‘Don’t turn your head.’ I assume he was jerking off,” she wrote.

In the memoir, Riley said that what happened to her mom was “one of her deepest childhood traumas.”

Following the release of the book, Edwards denied Lisa Marie’s allegations.

“These claims are absolutely untrue,” Edwards, now 80, said in a statement to Us Weekly. “I never molested Lisa Marie and am shocked at the suggestion I did.”

Michael Edwards’ daughter, Caroline Van Zandt, also denied Lisa Marie’s claims.

“I have kept many notes and letters from Lisa Marie during those years and she never stated or insinuated that my dad touched her inappropriately,” she told Us Weekly. “When she told me about my dad walking into her room, we then addressed and resolved the issue as a family.”

“I’m disappointed and sad that these claims are being made,” Van Zandt added.

Presley “trapped” Danny Keough into marriage after plotting her pregnancy.

Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough in 1991.

Presley and Keough were married from 1988 to 1994. In her memoir, Presley said that she got an abortion during the early years of their relationship.

She called the abortion “the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life” and was so distraught that she “made a plan” to get pregnant again.

So, Presley arranged a trip to meet up with Keough while he was in Aruba with his band. They spent a night together and she informed him of her positive pregnancy test two weeks later.

“Danny knew he had to marry me,” Presley said. “I trapped him. I didn’t really mean to, but I did.”

Riley Keough, meanwhile, said in the memoir that Presley “absolutely meant to trap my dad.”

Presley said that her marriage to Keough was in trouble when she and Michael Jackson fell in love with each other.

Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough in June 1991.

Presley first met Jackson in Vegas when she was about 6 years old and he was 16. She was in town for one of her dad’s performances.

She and Jackson reconnected in 1993 through a mutual friend. Presley was married to Keough at the time and according to her, Jackson pursued her.

Presley said that she and Jackson “just clicked” and talked on the phone for “long periods of time.”

“I just thought that he was lonely and needed a friend,” she said. “But he was pursuing me.”

Presley said she ended up visiting him in Vegas and staying for eight days, during which “nothing happened physically, but the connection was so insanely strong.”

During her final night, Presley said that Jackson told her, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m completely in love with you. I want us to get married and for you to have my children.”

“By then, I felt I was in love with him, too,” she said. “I had told him that my marriage was in serious trouble.”

Upon her return to Los Angeles, Presley told Keough about her conversation with Jackson. She and Keough broke up and she went on to date Jackson, who told her he was still a virgin at the time.

Presley and Jackson got married in the Dominican Republic 20 days after her divorce. Riley said they enjoyed marital bliss for a year, “then things went downhill.”

Jackson started being secretive about his drug use and Presley’s distrust grew. She filed for divorce in January 1996 after 20 months of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences.

They started talking again later, but Presley cut Jackson out of her life after watching him perform in South Africa in 1997. Years later, Jackson told her that he suspected that people around him were trying to kill him.

Jackson died of cardiac arrest in June 2009.

“My mom told me that she communicated with Michael through her dreams for months after he died,” Riley said.

She became addicted to opioids after giving birth to twin daughters Harper and Finley, and it “escalated to 80 pills a day” at one point.

Lisa Marie Presley in January 2023 in Beverly Hills, California.

Presley gave birth to four children: Riley Keough, Benjamin Keough, and twin daughters Harper and Finley Lockwood, who she welcomed with then-husband Michael Lockwood.

Riley said that being a mother was “the most important thing” to Presley, but her opioid addiction got in the way. She became addicted to painkillers when she was 40.

“When I had my twins and I was in the hospital and they gave me Norco, that’s when I felt the first oh-my-God high from a painkiller,” Presley recalled in her memoir.

Presley said that she became more reliant on pills and used drugs as a coping mechanism after she left Scientology. According to Keough, Presley started drinking more, increasing the amount of opioids she used, and began doing cocaine.

“It escalated to 80 pills a day,” Presley said.

“I just wanted to check out,” she added. “It was too painful to be sober.”

She often drove 200 miles to Graceland just to stay in Elvis’ bed for comfort.

Priscilla Presley, Elvis Presley, and Lisa Marie Presley.

In the memoir, Keough said that Lisa Marie prided herself on being a good mother. When she fell short of that, she was hard on herself. She and the kids frequently traveled to Graceland seeking solace in Elvis’ bedroom, which was preserved after his death.

“When she lived in Nashville, in the depths of her addiction, my mom would often drive the two hundred miles southwest to Graceland to sleep in her dad’s bed,” Keough said. “It seemed like the only place she found any comfort.”

Keough said that the family would sleep in Elvis’ bed while tours of Graceland took place downstairs.

“I wish this was a magical time in a magical family place,” she said. “But the truth of it was, she was in the house desperate to feel protected, desperate to connect with her father. She would lie in his bed, lie on his floor, anything to feel some comfort.”

Presley kept her son Benjamin’s body on dry ice in her home for two months after he died.

Benjamin Keough and Lisa Marie Presley in 2010.

Benjamin’s alcohol addiction and depression worsened as Presley’s health declined.

“They were so close — like Elvis and Gladys — one inextricably tied to the rise and fall of the other, and seeing each other in pain was impossibly hard for them,” Riley wrote, referring to Elvis and his mom, Gladys Presley. “It wrecked him.”

Benjamin died by suicide in July 2020. He was 27 years old.

Afterward, Presley focused on her sobriety. As she processed her son’s death, she kept his body on dry ice in a room in her house that was set to 55 degrees to prevent deterioration.

“It was really important for my mom to have ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she’d done with her dad,” Riley wrote. “And I would go and sit in there with him.”

After his funeral in Malibu, Benjamin was buried in Graceland, next to Elvis.

After his death, Presley showed Benjamin’s body to a tattoo artist so she could get matching ink.

Lisa Marie Presley in June 2022.

Prior to his death, Benjamin had the word Riley tattooed on his collarbone and his mom’s name on his hand. To honor him, Presley and Riley decided to get matching tattoos of his name in the corresponding areas of their bodies.

Riley said that her mom was “adamant” about getting her tattoo exactly where Benjamin had his. When the tattoo artist asked if Presley had any reference photos for him to match, she said: “No, but I can show you.”

Presley took the artist to the room, opened the casket, and grabbed Benjamin’s hand to show him the tattoo and its placement.

“I stood there aghast, watching him try to engage in the conversation and pretend this was fine,” Riley recalled.

After seeing the body, the tattoo artist proceeded to ink Presley precisely as she wanted.

“I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five,” Riley said.