Priscilla Presley revealed in her new memoir that Elvis Presley offered to have an abortion when she was pregnant with her daughter, Lisa Marie.
That’s just one of the few surprising revelations that 80-year-old Priscilla saw on Tuesday on page 6 in her new book, Softly, A Show I Leave You.
The former “Dallas” actress says she struggled to control a selfish daughter who was left “very broken” in August 1977 by her father’s death.
Priscilla then introduces Lisa Marie to the controversial Church of Scientology, but she confesses that she is “naive” about religion.
And she tells us how Lisa fought years of financial hardship and substance abuse when she took 80 tablets a day before Lisa died in January 2023 in 2054.
“My daughter was a challenge, complicated and challenging,” Priscilla wrote. “Lisa was a free spirit and a determined, restless soul.”
As the daughter of the icon, Lisa was called her public persona.
“It was an identity that fascinated and haunted her for the rest of her life,” Priscilla writes.
Elvis and Priscilla met famously while she was only 14 and 24 years old, serving in Germany in the US Army. They got married in 1967 and only had a few weeks when they discovered she was pregnant.
“Our wedding meant we could finally come out openly,” Priscilla said. “I was very excited, but when I got pregnant on my wedding night, those dreams fell apart.
“Neither Elvis nor I were ready for kids.”
“For weeks, Elvis and I were silently worried about what was coming, and at my lowest point I even wondered if I felt like I had an accident and had a miscarriage.
Elvis then said, “One day I looked at me and asked if I wanted an abortion. He told me he would support me with anything I wanted. His words were a wake-up call.
“The enormity of it hit me head-on and I began to cry. I told him, I can’t do that. This is our baby!”
When Lisa Marie arrived in February 1968, the couple quickly “faintly fell in love with her.”
Priscilla left Elvis when she was four years old after Lisa Marie formed a relationship with Karate instructor Mike Stone, but insisted that this was not the reason for her departure.
When Elvis found out about Stone, Priscilla said she had “forced” her.
Elvis, who frequently fooled Priscilla, was so upset that his closest companion, Joe Esposito, even asked to find a hitman to take out the stones, but was persuaded to settle down.
“It was difficult, but I never regretted the decision to leave Elvis, but I never stopped lamenting it,” Priscilla said.
“Raising my daughter was a challenge for both of us,” Priscilla admitted. “She was strong and willing from the beginning. Like her dad, she just came like that. Lisa had her own heart and being Elvis’ daughter strengthened it.”
Certainly, Lisa struggles to fit in school, and her go-to line is, “I’m Lisa Presley. My dad, Elvis Presley! …Look at that!”
When Lisa entered the teenager, she became “famous” with the boys, and at age 14, “the world I knew fell apart,” Priscilla said.
After returning home from the trip, Lisa says that Priscilla’s boyfriend, actor Michael Edwards, came to her room and lifted her bed covers to see her.
Lisa tells her she didn’t do anything physically, but Priscilla asks Edwards to move in and gets “ill” four years later when she publishes a book that acknowledged her “sexual obsession” with her daughter.
Priscilla said she was shocked 40 years later when Lisa claimed in her memoir “From Here to Great Great Unknown” (published posthumously in December 2024) that Edwards had abused her. Edwards denied the claim.
“I was encouraged to adorn harmless anecdotes about Lisa Marie in my memoirs from the 1980s.
“I understand that these stories sell books, but the notion that I abused Lisa Marie is merely counterfeit.”
According to Priscilla, Lisa Marie said she told her that she was “completely different” than what was found in the book at the time.
“I had a hard time reconciliating with Lisa’s words,” Priscilla wrote.
By the time Lisa received her inheritance from her father’s property at the age of 25, she was already married to musicians Danny Kee and Riley and Benjamin’s mother.
However, the marriage collapsed and Priscilla was “applauded” when Lisa married Michael Jackson after being accused of child abuse.
“I didn’t think he loved her,” Priscilla said. “He married her when he desperately needed good publicity, portraying him as a desirable heterosexual.
“Fighting accusations of child abuse was one thing. There was no way out of the appearance. But the picture of Elvis’ daughter wearing the enormous diamond engagement ring that she made for her was pure gold.
“On January 18, 1996, Lisa filed for divorce and I was able to actually hear Elvis sigh in peace,” Priscilla said. Jackson passed away in 2009.
By 2005, Lisa had “broken” and sold 85% of her inheritance, but Graceland, Elvis’ iconic Memphis home, remains with her family.
Lisa Marie’s joy in marrying her third husband, guitarist Michael Lockwood in October 2008, and welcoming twin girls, Finley and Harper, was plagued by the opioid given to her after birth.
“Lisa inherited Elvis’ vulnerability to opioid addiction and was addicted by the time she left the hospital,” Priscilla said.
By 2014, “the problem was far beyond painkillers,” Lisa said, taking opioids and adopting “mixing cocaine with large amounts of alcohol,” leading her to rehabilitation for the first time.
This concluded her marriage to Lockwood. Priscilla said she was “unstood” when the truth about Lisa’s drug addiction came up in a court declaration during her 2016 divorce fight.
“I didn’t know how much poison she was pouring into her body,” she said. Priscilla temporarily took custody of the twins, but they returned to their mother a year later.
Despite this, “Lisa has steadily gone downhill from the day she first filed for divorce. My daughter seemed to have disappeared among the women I had never met. She was no longer my Lisa Marie.
“Desperate to keep her girl, she lived in a tornado of drug fuel emotions.
She also became furious when Priscilla refused to testify in court and Lockwood was by her side, claiming she was an inappropriate dad. Lisa Marie eventually gained major custody, but Lockwood began watching his children part-time.
“I knew it was useless to discuss her with her. I would discuss her addiction,” Priscilla said. “I stabbed my heart and knew she would never forgive me completely, and she never did. I lost one of the two I loved the most. I didn’t know I would lose her forever any time soon.
Lisa Marie committed suicide by committing Benjamin in July 2020 at the age of 27. This was the “beginning of the end of my daughter.” “We all knew we were living with Lisa on the time we rented.”
By the time the pair celebrated Bazzluluman’s film Elvis on January 10, 2023, Lisa had to barely walk and be helped by family friend Jerry Schilling.
She complained to her mom about her stomach hurting and left early. “I didn’t know that was the last hug,” Priscilla said.
Just two days later, Lisa turns out to be unconscious by her keef, who has returned with her. “From the first moment, I knew that stepping into Lisa’s hospital room was gone,” Priscilla said.
Lisa undergoes cardiac arrest after developing a small intestinal obstruction, a severe complication of bariatric surgery.
Priscilla finishes the book and says, “My little wild child, I love you forever.”
