Priscilla Presley is having none of the conspiracy theories. Nearly five decades after the heart failure death of her ex-husband, Elvis Presley, the 80-year-old is putting an end to the online speculation that the late music icon is still among the living. “There’s been so much untruth out there—claims like Elvis is still alive and hiding away somewhere,” Priscilla revealed to *People* in a September cover story. “I wish he were still alive.”
Beyond dispelling the rumors and confirming that the “Burning Love” singer rests in peace, Priscilla also took a moment to reflect on their whirlwind romance, which ignited in 1959 when she was just 14 years old. “I met him at such a tender age that I hadn’t even had time to contemplate what life might hold,” she continued. “Even as we dated, I’d wonder, ‘What am I going to do with my life? I don’t want to be a nurse. I don’t want to be a teacher. I don’t want to be a secretary. What can I do?’ Then, other things unfolded, and I cherished every moment.”
The couple exchanged vows in 1967 after Priscilla left her parents’ side to join the musician in Memphis, Tennessee. Nine months later, they welcomed their first child, Lisa Marie Presley, before ultimately parting ways in 1973. Beyond the loss of her ex-husband in 1977, Priscilla described the day her daughter passed away at the age of 54 as one of the darkest chapters of her life. “It was the second-saddest day of my existence, next only to losing Elvis,” Priscilla shared with *People* in an interview published on September 17, recounting her daughter’s tragic death in January 2023. “It took an agonizingly long time to come to terms with Lisa’s absence.”
Lisa had been rushed to the hospital after her ex-husband, Danny Keough—father to Riley Keough and the late Benjamin Keough—discovered her unresponsive at home, suffering from a small bowel obstruction that had developed following bariatric surgery she underwent years earlier. “Lisa wasn’t really breathing; she was on a ventilator,” Priscilla recalled. “For hours, we stood there, waiting, hoping, and praying until the doctor finally walked in and said, ‘Priscilla, I’m so sorry, she’s gone.’”
“We just couldn’t fathom it—didn’t want to accept it,” she added, speaking of her family, including Lisa Marie’s 16-year-old twins, Harper Lockwood and Finley Lockwood, whom she shared with ex-husband Michael Lockwood. “It was devastating for all of us, and it still weighs heavily on our hearts.”
