The unexpected death of Lisa Marie Presley in January 2023, attributed to complications from a previous surgery, left a profound void in the music world and within her family. However, her mother, Priscilla Presley, has now revealed a deeply emotional and painful backstory in her forthcoming memoir “Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis”, set to be released next week, with People magazine publishing an exclusive excerpt.
In the book, Elvis Presley’s former wife confesses that her daughter had largely lost the will to live long before her passing. “Lisa no longer wanted to be here before,” Priscilla writes with heartbreaking honesty, explaining that her daughter had been consumed by grief since the suicide of her son Benjamin Keough in 2020, when he was just 27 years old. Priscilla, now 80, describes her grandson Benjamin as “the greatest and most absolute love of Lisa’s life.
” According to her, Benjamin’s death completely shattered Lisa Marie and sparked in her a deep longing to be reunited with him. “After Ben took his own life, Lisa wanted to be with him,” she reveals in her memoir. Even so, Priscilla says she tried desperately to hold her daughter together through her grief, reminding her of the two young daughters who still needed her — the twins Finley and Harper, who were 11 years old at the time. “I told her:
‘You have to take care of your twins.’ And she tried, she really tried,” Priscilla recalls with sorrow. These revelations offer a new and deeply moving perspective on Lisa Marie Presley’s tragic death, shedding light on the heavy emotional burden she carried in her final years — marked by profound loss, ongoing grief, and her struggle to keep going for the sake of her daughters.
