Inside Lisa Marie Presley’s high-profile marriages
The singer and only child of Elvis Presley came into the limelight as entertainment royalty. Yet, the star led a difficult life, marrying and divorcing four times.
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Lisa Marie Presley has died at the age of 54 following a cardiac arrest.
The US singer and only child of the late Elvis Presley passed away just hours after being found unresponsive in her home by a housekeeper on Thursday, local time.
While the star carved out a successful career, fans were always fascinated by her relationships. Over the years, her four marriages were headline-making.
Here’s a look at Lisa Marie’s romantic history.
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Danny Keough
The Graceland heiress first tied the knot with musician Danny Keough in October 1988 when she was 20 years old.
Less than one year after saying “I do,” the couple welcomed their first child, daughter Riley Keough, in May 1989.
The pair’s second child, son Benjamin Keough, was born in October 1992. Benjamin died by suicide in 2020 at age 27.
The pair called it quits in 1994, though they remained on good terms up until her death.
“He’s my absolute best friend in the world,” Lisa Marie told Rolling Stone in 2003 of first ex-husband.
“The smartest thing I’ve ever done is have children with this man, because I knew this is the one man I could be connected to for the rest of my life.”
The You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet star told Marie Claire in 2007 that she thought marrying young had impacted her relationship with Danny.
“I had been really sheltered. I got married the first time very, very young,” she said.
“And the marriage I was in, there was so much resentment about who I was, because I had more than he did, and it became a power struggle.
“It is hard for a man to be with a woman who is stronger, wealthier.”
Lisa Marie added at the time: “Leaving my first marriage, for the person that I left it for — that was probably the biggest mistake of my life.”
Michael Jackson
The Sticks and Stones singer was referring to Michael Jackson, whom she secretly wed in the Dominican Republic in 1994 — 20 days after her divorce from Danny was finalised.
“I am very much in love with Michael, I dedicate my life to being his wife,” Lisa Marie announced in a statement to People.
“I understand and support him. We both look forward to raising a family.”
The pair first met in 1975 when the seven-year-old Lisa Marie saw the King of Pop in concert.
According to Rolling Stone, the Thriller singer first got in touch with Lisa Marie when she was a teenager.
“I was completely in love with Danny, and I thought he was weird, and I had no interest in meeting him,” she told the outlet.
Years later, the Billie Jean crooner reached out to Lisa Marie again, this time to ask to listen to her demo. She agreed and was surprised by the person she met.
“He was very real with me off the bat. He immediately went into this whole explanation of what he knew people thought of him and what the truth was,” she said.
“You get sucked into the ‘You poor, misunderstood person, you’. I’m a sucker for that.
“Then we sat down to talk, and he was so not what I thought he was. He was very real - he was cursing, he was funny, and I was like, ‘Wow.’”
She continued: “I fell into that ‘You have this whole Howard Hughes thing that goes on in the press, and you’re not anything like that.
“... I was always saying, ‘People wouldn’t think I was so crazy if they saw who the hell you really are: that you sit around and you drink and you curse and you’re f***ing funny, and you have a bad mouth, and you don’t have that high voice all the time.
“I don’t know why you think that works for you, because it doesn’t anymore.”
The duo developed a friendship and often talked on the phone.
The star turned to Lisa Marie for emotional support after he was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in 1993.
The Grammy winner denied the allegations and reached a settlement with the boy’s family in 1994.
“I believed he didn’t do anything wrong, and that he was wrongly accused and, yes, I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it,” she later said.
As soon as the couple tied the knot, rumours were surrounding their relationship about their sex life.
US journalist Diane Sawyer famously asked the pair in an interview if they had a sex life, to which Lisa Marie responded enthusiastically, “Do we have sex? Yes! Yes! Yes!”
After two years of marriage, Lisa Marie filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences”.
When Jackson died in June 2009, Lisa Marie penned an emotional essay.
She wrote that she wanted to “save” her former husband amid his struggles with substance abuse.
“Our relationship was not ‘a sham’ ... I wanted to ‘save him,’” she wrote.
“I wanted to save him from the inevitable which is what has just happened.
“His family and his loved ones also wanted to save him from this as well but didn’t know how and this was 14 years ago.
“We all worried that this would be the outcome then.”
Nicolas Cage
Lisa Marie walked down the aisle a third time, with Nicolas Cage, in 2002.
In an interview with Barbara Walters, Cage said he was “thunderstruck” by Lisa Marie when they met at a party in 2000.
“I walk into a party not knowing who I’m going to meet and there’s this beautiful girl standing in the middle of the living room wearing this short leather skirt and this fluffy jacket, and she looks up at me with these big, beautiful, soulful eyes, eyes that look like they have a sad story to tell, and I just went ‘Oh,’” Cage said.
Four months after they exchanged vows, the Oscar winner filed for divorce.
“I’m sad about this, but we shouldn’t have been married in the first place,” Lisa Marie said in a statement at the time.
Cage said in his own statement: “I did not comment on the marriage, I am not going to comment on the divorce.”
They finalised their divorce in 2004.
“Marrying him was a wild flurry, a crazy idea and being young, and ‘Ahhhh!’” Lisa Marie said of Cage in 2007.
At the time of their divorce, she said they should have never married.
Michael Lockwood
Lisa Marie married for a fourth and final time in 2006 to musician Michael Lockwood. Her ex-husband Danny was the best man at their wedding.
The couple welcomed twin daughters Harper and Finley in 2008.
While pregnant with her twins, Lisa Marie told Marie Claire that Lockwood was her best friend.
“I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I’ve chased all the crazies down,” she told the publication.
“I was ready to stop the madness. At this age, I really appreciate having [a husband who is] a best friend. But you know, the other guys were fun. For a while.”
After 10 years of marriage, Lisa Marie filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences and requesting that Lockwood only be allowed monitored visitation of their daughters.
A years-long custody battle over their children ensued. Their divorce was finalised in 2021, five years after their split.
– with NY Post
Originally published as Inside Lisa Marie Presley’s high-profile marriages
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