How Lisa Marie Presley ended up penniless

HER late father is still worth hundreds of millions, but a turbulent personal life and bad decisions have left Lisa Marie Presley virtually penniless.

SHE’S the only child of one of the richest musical figures in show business, yet Lisa Marie Presley claims to have just $US14,000 ($A18,000) to her name.

Where did it all go wrong for the troubled singer, 50, whose turbulent personal life has been the subject of tabloid fodder for decades?

Lisa Marie Presley apparently has just $14,000 in the bank. Picture: Adam Taylor

HER FATHER’S FORTUNE

Elvis Presley placed fourth on Forbes’ annual list of the top-earning dead celebrities last year, earning $US35 million ($A45 million) in 2017, 40 years after his death.

But it wasn’t always this way. At the time of his death, Elvis’ fortune had dwindled to just $5 million. On her 25th birthday in 1993, Lisa Marie inherited her father’s estate, which, thanks largely to the stewardship of her mother, Priscilla, had grown to an estimated $US100 million ($A128,000).

She was owner and chairman of the board until 2005, when she sold 85 per cent of the estate’s business holdings, excluding his expansive property Graceland, which she kept.

Now, Lisa Marie claims her former business manager swindled her out of the vast majority of her fortune, leaving her with only $US14,000 ($A18,000).

Lisa Marie (right) pictured with mother Priscilla, who rebuilt Elvis’ fortune after his death.

Presley filed a lawsuit in which she alleged Barry Siegel of dissipating her wealth “through his reckless and negligent mismanagement and self-serving ambition”.

She also claimed Siegel’s “hopes of attaining his own celebrity in the entertainment industry” led him to place her assets in “risky ventures”.

Presley also claimed Siegel’s business decisions left her with $US500,000 ($A640,000) in credit card debt.

In turn, Siegel and his company allege it was her own out-of-control spending that led to her perilous financial situation.

According to additional court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Presley owes $US10 million ($A12.8 million) in taxes and $US6 million ($A7.7 million) on her home in England.

ROCKY LOVE LIFE

Lisa Marie has been married four times: First to musician Danny Keough in 1988 with whom she had two children, second (and most famously) to pop superstar Michael Jackson in 1994, just two days after her divorce from Keough was finalised. She and Jackson divorced two years later, and in 2002 she married actor Nicolas Cage. They filed for divorce after 108 days of marriage.

At Neverland in 1995 with MJ.

With Nic Cage in 2001. Picture: Getty

Presley wed a fourth time in 2006, marrying musician Michael Lockwood. She filed for divorce after a 10-year marriage that produced 10-year-old twin girls.

Legal documents filed by Presley as part of divorce proceedings paint a picture of an unstable home life, as she battled drug and alcohol problems.

In the documents obtained by Radar Online, Presley admitted to a serious drug addiction where she “abus[ed] cocaine terribly” and took part in multiple stays in rehab.

Presley with then-husband Michael Lockwood (and hat) in 2015. Picture: Getty

“I had to go to rehab several times. I was a mess. I couldn’t stop,” she stated. Presley said her drug problem included painkiller and opioid abuse, and lasted for the final three years of her marriage.

“The last year of our marriage I was abusing cocaine terribly,” she said. “It was bad, yeah.”

FOLLOWING IN DAD’S FOOTSTEPS

While for most of the 1990s Presley was best-known for her brief, bizarre marriage to Michael Jackson, in 2003 she launched her music career in earnest at the age of 35. Her debut album, To Whom It May Concern, was a top-five US platinum hit, birthing single Lights Out with lyrics about Memphis, “where my family’s buried and gone”.

But her early success soon petered out: In 2012 her third and most recent album, Storm & Grace, sputtered into the charts at number 45, despite a prime time slot on American Idol to promote it. And Presley’s 2014 Australian tour — which saw her playing regional venues in places like Rooty Hill and Tumbi Umbi — showed just how much she had to battle to escape the long shadow cast by her father and ex-husband. Meet and greet tickets for the tour came with a strict stipulation: Anybody dressed as Elvis or Michael Jackson would not be allowed to meet Presley, under any circumstances.

Lisa Marie Presley's meet and greet conditions.

SCIENTOLOGIST NO MORE

The religion of choice for many of Hollywood’s rich and famous, Scientology was introduced to Presley in 1977 by her mother Priscilla. Over the years she rose through the ranks of the mysterious church, becoming an influential and well-respected member, even accepting a Humanitarian Award for her activities within the church.

But in the past decade she is said to have had a growing dissatisfaction with Scientology, and in 2016 officially defected.

A young Lisa Marie Presley (left) with Priscilla, who introduced her daughter to Scientology when she was just nine.

But her mother and 28-year-old daughter, actor Riley Keough, are both still devout Scientologists, and are reportedly fighting to get her to rejoin the church.

Elvis himself was deeply sceptical of Scientology. The late music icon’s friend Marty Lacker wrote in his book Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations From The Memphis Mafia that after a visit to the Scientology centre in Los Angeles, Elvis said: “F**k those people! There’s no way I’ll ever get involved with that son-of-a-bitchin’ group. All they want is my money.”

And indeed, Scientology may explain at least some of the Elvis estate’s missing millions: It’s rumoured that Priscilla gave the church a hefty share of his estate.

Lisa Marie (right) and mother Priscilla in 2010.