Priscilla Presley is 80: a life for Elvis

It was all about him. Always just around him. Around the King, the king of rock’n’roll. Around Elvis Presley (1935-1977). So one could describe the life of Priscilla Presley (80) in a short form.

The ex-wife of the rock idol has survived her former husband for 48 years, but the dead Elvis still plays the leading role. On May 24th Priscilla Presley 80 will only be reported because she was married to Elvis for six and a half years.

In total, the two were over 13 years. For the rest of the time together, i.e. from divorce to Elvis’ death, Priscilla was connected to the rock star in an intimate friendship. These 18 years were tough, they shape Priscilla’s life to this day.

Elvis Presley from the US state of Tennessee and Priscilla Beaulieu from New York City had met in Germany. Elvis performed his military service in Bad Nauheim (Hesse), Priscilla’s stepfather was stationed in Wiesbaden as an air force officer. The 14-year-old took friends to a party in a private house in which the US soldier Presley lived with his father and grandmother after the early death of his mother. At that time, Elvis Presley was already a music star with No. 1 hits, TV appearances and a number of cinema films.

The 14-year-old Priscilla fell in love with Elvis, ten years older. The girl’s parents allowed further visits to Bad Nauheim, Elvis had to promise to always bring Priscilla home on time. He has largely adhered to that.

In the spring of 1960 Presley returned to the USA, the romantic relationship with Priscilla had a provisional end. His management may have pushed to a separation, because the unveiling of a love affair with a 14-year-old would have caused a giant scandal, with corresponding criminal consequences for the rock star and possibly also the end of his career.

It was only in the summer of 1962 that Priscilla, now 17, had contact with him again. He invited her to Hollywood, her parents agreed with the two-week visit under the following conditions: Elvis had to pay a first class for the girl, and a accompanying person must always be present during the entire stay, Priscilla must write her parents every day. Under these conditions, Priscilla flew to La

In these two weeks it must have been pretty well. Elvis shows his girlfriend his world, including a trip to Las Vegas, in which Priscilla takes amphetamines and sleeping pills for the first time in order to keep up with Elvis. Previously, he had Priscilla written a postcard for every day, which one of his employees in LA sends to the parents every day while the couple is in Las Vegas, of course without accompanying person.

Finally, she opens up to the parents that she wants to move entirely to Elvis to Memphis. When Presley signed an agreement that he would marry Priscilla, the girl is allowed to go to him two months before his 18th birthday. In Memphis she closes the high school and moves to the Graceland estate, in which his grandmother also lives, while Presley is mostly in Hollywood. On May 1, 1967, the couple married in Las Vegas.

Priscilla has changed purely on the outside: a brunette student has become a black-haired, touped vamp with thick applied make-up. Elvis likes it that way. A seductive wife. On the one hand. On the other hand, Elvis is said to have insisted that Priscilla had to go into marriage as a virgin. She also claims that she had no sex with Elvis until the wedding night.

The biographer Suzanne Finstad denies these claims in her book “Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley” (“Children’s Bride: The Unbelieved Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley”). Furthermore, Finstad claims that Priscilla supposedly did not want to live with Elvis, but that their connection, including the marriage, should have been part of a plan exposed by their parents.

Anyway: Priscilla is getting pregnant quickly. However, she fears that this pregnancy could destroy its laboriously built closeness to her husband, but an abortion is out of the question for Elvis. Daughter Lisa Marie Presley (1968-2023) was born on February 1, 1968.

Marriage is becoming increasingly difficult. From 1968, Elvis’ career picked up speed again after a doldrum. He is constantly on tours, has appearances in Las Vegas (and supposedly several affairs with other women), while Priscilla takes care of the little daughter at home in Graceland. But she should also cheat, supposedly with a dancer and a caratal teacher.

When he is at home, his young woman suffers from his tantrums, in which he sometimes throws with chairs to Priscilla. You and probably also Elvis gain realization: I can’t do without you, I don’t want to be with you!

The couple separated in 1972, divorce in 1973. Both have custody for Lisa Marie, Priscilla receives $ 725,000 in cash, spouse and child support, five percent of Elvis’ new publishing company and half of the proceeds from the sale of their house in Beverly Hills. On the day of the divorce, both leave the courthouse in hand.

Even after the separation, they remain connected in intimate friendship, although everyone has numerous relationships for themselves. Priscilla lives in Hollywood and has conditions with the actor Peter Lawford, with Richard Gere and Julio Iglesias. She finally has space and time for her own career, because during the marriage to Elvis his idea was: “A woman’s place is at home, she takes care of her husband.” Priscilla opens a fashion boutique for Hollywood stars in LA, all of which shop at EL ELVIS.

In August 1977 the shock message: Elvis Presley died of heart failure at the age of 42. Alleged cause of death: the musician had taken too many medication.

Daughter Lisa Marie is the sole heiress, the full testament is Elvis’ father Vernon Presley (1916-1979), who appoints Priscilla as his successor. Two years later, after Vernon’s death, she regulates the inheritance of the ex-husband and turns it into a money machine.

Before Priscilla’s intervention, the preservation of Graceland devoured $ 500,000 annually, Lisa Marie’s heir had shrunk to one million dollars, and underground taxes and other costs of another $ 500,000 were also incurred. Priscilla makes Graceland accessible to the public, it becomes a tourist attraction. The company Elvis Presley Enterprises has accumulated a fortune of over $ 100 million under his president Priscilla Presley until the 21st birthday of her daughter.

Her acting career also picks up speed in the early 1980s. The ex from Elvis plays for five years in the TV series “Dallas”. The three parts of the movie “The Naked Cam”, in which it takes over the female leading role, are also a great success. Priscilla is developing into a success model in all possible industries. It sells perfume, fashion, even bed linen. With everything, the last name Presley proves to be promoting sales.

And yet this film -ready life, which is actually filmed by the director Sofia Coppola (54) as a biopic “Priscilla” in 2023, is repeatedly overshadowed by tragedies. In 2020 her grandson Benjamin Keough committed suicide at the age of 27.

And the daughter Lisa Marie, who was married four times (UA with Michael Jackson) and had repeatedly struggling with addiction problems, in 2023 died of an intestinal obstruction after she had undergone a weight of a weight the year before. She is buried in Graceland next to her father’s graves and son. Some media fantasize about the curse of the Presleys: Elvis’ mother Gladys Love died at 46, he himself died at 42, his daughter was only 54 years old.

There are always reports about priscillas. In 2003 she got into a so -called miracle doctor who actually had no approval. Nevertheless, he was acted as an insider tip for eternal youth in Hollywood. This high -stapler injected Priscilla a supposed miracle cure into the facial areas. In truth, it was cheap industrial silicone. The consequences were catastrophic. Only subsequent treatment was able to correct the worst. She may also describe the serious intervention in her memoirs “Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis”, which will be released in September 2025.