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Lisa Marie Presley is dead. The musician died on Thursday after a heart attack. Her death marks the end of a life marked by tragic strokes of fate.
Patricia BroderEditor People
The end of a tragic life: Lisa Marie Presley († 54) is dead. The only child of rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley (1935-1977) appeared at the Golden Globes on Tuesday, but was already working on the side of her mother Priscilla Presley (77) struck. After a heart attack, Presley died in hospital on Thursday after her first husband, Danny Keough (58), tried to save her with a heart massage.
Lisa Marie Presley’s death marks the end of a life marked by loss and tragic misfortune. Presley was just nine years old when she witnessed her famous father, Elvis Presley, collapse and die at his Graceland estate in 1977. At the hospital, doctors diagnosed death from a heart attack. A toxicology study found traces of prescription drugs in the music legend’s blood. “My dad is dead,” she is said to have said at the time.
Drug addiction caught up with her for life
Presley struggled with drugs as a teenager, and addiction to narcotics plagued her throughout her life. During her public divorce from her third husband, Michael Lockwood, 61, she admitted in a 2017 affidavit that she was addicted to opioids, cocaine, painkillers and alcohol. She has tried several times to get clean with professional help, she explained.
But not only Presley’s drug addiction, but also her love life made headlines again and again. The singer stepped in front of the altar four times. In 1988 she married US musician Danny Keough, and the six-year marriage resulted in the children Riley (33) and Benjamin (1992-2020). From 1994 to 1996 Lisa Marie Presley was the wife of Michael Jackson (1958-2009). The marriage of the daughter of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the King of Pop made many headlines. But this marriage didn’t last long either. “I was obsessed with saving Michael,” Presley recalled in a 2003 interview. “All I got out of it was a shitstorm. And I got through it.”
Marriage to Nicolas Cage lasted 107 days
In 2002, there was a brief marriage to film star Nicolas Cage (59), which lasted only 107 days. “It was that kind of thing where you marry someone hoping to either stabilize their life or amplify whatever was already problematic,” Presley explained after the marriage. “So for us it was more of the latter.”
In January 2006 she married musician and producer Michael Lockwood (61), with whom she had twin daughters Harper Vivienne Ann and Finley Aaron Love (both 14) in 2008. The couple was married for ten years. Up until Presley’s death, the two ex-husbands fought a bitter custody and child support battle.
Son Benjamin took his own life in 2020
Almost three years ago, Lisa Marie Presley finally experienced her last major stroke of fate: her son Benjamin took his own life at the age of only 27. Presley then withdrew from the public. It was only in the summer of last year that she found the strength to publicly comment on her son’s death in an essay. “My beautiful angel. I adored the ground you walked on – on this earth and now in heaven,” she said of her sadness at the time. “My heart and soul went with you.”
The death of her only son destroyed her, Presley explains in the summer of 2022. But even if the grief eats her up, she tries to get on with her life – especially for her daughters. A promise she couldn’t keep.