Lisa Marie Presley, singer and only child of Elvis, has died aged 54
Lisa Marie Presley, the singer-songwriter and only child of Elvis, has died at the age of 54, following her sudden admission to hospital for a medical emergency.
News of Presley’s death was confirmed today by her mother, Priscilla, who said in a statement (via the Associated Press) that “my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us. She was the most passionate strong and loving woman I have ever known.” Priscilla thanked the public for their “love and prayers”.
Presley’s death comes hours after she had been rushed to hospital after suffering a possible cardiac arrest. According to reports, an ambulance was called to Presley’s Calabasas home on Thursday (January 12), where it’s said responders administered CPR. Priscilla later issued a statement confirming the hospitalisation, writing at the time that her daughter was “receiving the best care”.
NME has contacted a representative of Presley for comment.
Lisa Marie Presley was the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, and the sole heir to her father’s estate, which she assumed in 1980. Presley retained ownership of Elvis’ home in Memphis, Tennessee, including her father’s Graceland mansion and its surrounding 13 acres. In 2004, she sold 85 per cent of all trademark rights to Elvis’ name to music promoter Robert F. X. Sillerman.
She was also a musician in her own right, releasing three studio albums between 2003 and 2012. Her first two albums – ‘To Whom It May Concern’ (2003) and ‘Now What’ (2004) – both hit the top 10 of the Billboard 200 album charts.
Presley was married four times. She was married to Danny Keough between 1988 and 1994, and shared two children with the musician. In 2020, one of her two children to Keough, Benjamin, died at the age of 21. In a statement released at the time by her representative Roger Widynowski, Presley said: “She adored that boy. He was the love of her life.” The statement did not state a cause of death.
Presley was married to Michael Jackson for 18 months in 1994, and would go on to marry actor Nicolas Cage in 2002. Presley’s last public appearance took place just days ago (January 11) at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards, which she attended with her mother in celebration of the Baz Lurhmann-directed biopic, Elvis.
Austin Butler won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama for his portrayal of the title character. “I really didn’t know what to do with myself after I saw it”, Presley said of Elvis on the red carpet. “I had to take, like, five days to process it because it was so incredible and so spot on and just so authentic.”
Presley spoke of bereavement in a 2022 essay for People, writing 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.”
This is a developing story.
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JJ Nattrass
NME
