The Presley family is among Hollywood's most
respected broods, but things aren't always
what they seem.
Drugs, money problems, and plastic surgery
snafus are just some of the dark secrets behind
the family of this musical legend.
Fifth time’s the charm?
Few women have had a track record of marriages
like Lisa Marie Presley.
In 2016, news broke that Presley was ending
her union with guitarist Michael Lockwood,
her husband since 2006.
This break-up marked Lisa Marie’s fourth
failed marriage.
Elvis’ only child was first married to Danny
Keough from 1988 to 1994, before famously
marrying the King of Pop, Michael Jackson,
the same year she split from her first husband.
"He's amazing!
I really admire him.
I respect him, I admire him, I'm in love with
him."
Presley and Jackson’s marriage lasted until
1996, when Presley filed for divorce citing
"irreconcilable differences."
Presley then went on to endure another short-lived
and highly-publicized marriage to actor Nicolas
Cage from 2002 to 2004, before marrying Lockwood
in 2006.
In 2007, while she was still married to Lockwood,
Presley explained her many relationship woes
to Marie Claire.
She said her first union to Danny Keough failed,
in part, because she was "very, very young,"
and because Keough had "resentment about who
[she] was."
Presley added that her first marriage "became
a power struggle," because:
"...it is hard for a man to be with a woman
who is stronger, wealthier."
And as for her rocky marriage to Cage?
Presley revealed:
"Marrying him was a wild flurry, a crazy idea
and being young."
While she’s obviously had her share of break-ups
and heartache, Presley's eventual disunion
from Lockwood was arguably the most difficult.
Following their split after ten years together,
the exes locked horns in one of the most bitter
custody and spousal support fights ever seen
in Hollywood.
Mama drama
According to Radar Online, court records obtained
from her fourth divorce showed that Lisa Marie
Presley struggled for years with addiction
to cocaine and prescription pills.
This meant that her twin daughters were often
left in the care of Michael Lockwood and the
couples' nannies, while Presley stayed in
bed, suffering from drug-fueled hallucinations.
Elvis’ daughter eventually got help and
had several rehab stints.
During her 2016 stay in rehab, Lisa Marie’s
twin daughters went to live with their grandmother,
Priscilla Presley, who posted a photo of the
girls playing in her pool with the caption:
"There is lots of confusion, commotion and
concern from all the talk circulating.
Let me put this to rest...the girls have not
been in foster care and never will be.
The girls have been with me and will be until
all this is sorted out."
In August 2018, Lisa Marie opened up to the
Today show about her addiction struggles,
telling the morning show that her therapist
finds it remarkable that she is even still
alive.
"I was not happy.
And by the way, the struggle in addiction
for me, started when I was 45 years old.
It wasn't like it was happening all my life."
Thankfully, in December 2018, sources told
The Blast that Presley had "been sober for
over two years," and that she'd even maintained
custody of her kids for months.
A hunk of burning debt
Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Lockwood's
messy divorce also ended up revealing that
Presley had been dealing with some pretty
serious financial issues.
According to a February 2017 ABC News report,
she rejected Lockwood's request for $40,000
per month in spousal support, because her
"three hundred million dollar fortune" was
gone, reportedly thanks to debts owed to the
IRS and various creditors.
Billboard dug deeper into Presley's finances,
and discovered that her lawyer claimed that
she owed the government a million dollars
in back taxes and was, quote, "deeply in debt
on a property in England."
Presley had moved to the U.K. from Los Angeles
in 2010 following the turmoil in her personal
life.
"A lot of things in my life changed, and I
just needed to sort of get away as far as
I could."
However, Lockwood's lawyers countered Presley’s
claim of being over her head in debt, claiming
Presley earns about $5.6 million annually
from her late father's estate.
An additional report by the Associated Press
revealed that Presley receives a monthly inheritance
check for $100,000 from Elvis Presley’s
estate, which also pays her directly with
$4,300 per month.
These monthly payments are the cherry on top
of the fifteen percent stake she holds in
Elvis Presley Enterprises, which the Associated
Press claimed "earns millions of dollars a
year."
Her father’s estate also covers Lisa Marie’s
health insurance.
Despite that seemingly steady stream of reported
income in 2017, Presley claimed just one year
later that she was $16.7 million in debt due
to financial mismanagement by her business
manager, according to People magazine.
Lisa Marie’s nanny problems
Shortly after giving birth to twin girls in
2008, Lisa Marie Presley acquired the help
of a nanny by the name of Christine White.
According to TMZ, White later sued Presley
because she felt she was overworked without
proper compensation.
The suit claimed White was tasked with caring
for the babies around the clock, and that
she worked seven-day weeks without being granted
proper breaks by Presley.
The following year, White dropped her case
against the star mom, but not before Presley
countersued, according to a follow-up report
by TMZ.
In her suit, Presley claimed White was fired
after breaking her contract by allegedly taking,
quote, "over 165 unauthorized photos and videos
of the babies," thus breaking the confidentiality
agreement.
That case was ultimately dismissed, and it's
unclear if it was ever actually settled.
However, Presley seemed to have the last word
on the matter, claiming White's original suit
was, quote, "born out of utter greed and revenge"
because Presley had terminated her.
Priscilla’s plastic surgery situation
Priscilla Presley competed on Dancing With
The Stars in 2008, but it wasn't her jitterbug
that had viewers buzzing.
Presley's face had changed so much that even
columnists for reputable outlets like The
Chicago Tribune were writing hurtful things
about her appearance, like:
"At once puffy and yanked, [Presley's] face,
and its odd relationship to her neck, often
takes on the dimensions of a Picasso painting."
Even Len Goodman would never dare to say something
that harsh.
As it turns out, the former Dallas star fell
victim to a terrible so-called "doctor" who
reportedly only wanted her cash.
According to TMZ, Presley allowed an unlicensed
physician named Daniel Serrano to inject silicone
into her face at the cost of three to five
hundred dollars per injection.
Even worse, the chemicals Serrano injected
into Presley’s face weren't even meant to
be used for cosmetic procedures; instead,
they were meant to be used on vehicles.
According to Fox News, Presley later admitted
that she had fallen hard for the scam.
Serrano was eventually slapped with an 18
month prison sentence for importing the dubious
injectables.
While TMZ also reported that Presley had "corrective
work" to reverse the damage done by Serrano,
new cosmetic surgery speculation surfaced
in 2016, following Presley's appearance on
the British talk show, Lorraine.
Speaking with MSN about Presley's jarring
new look, plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Dr. Robert Stephen Mulholland noted:
"Her cheeks are a little over-augmented, her
mouth is a little pulled.
She has had a good start but a bad finish."
Elvis had a concerning type
In her book Elvis and Me, Priscilla Presley
wrote that she "had just turned fourteen"
when she met Elvis Presley, who was 24 years
old and already an international superstar
at the time.
Despite the fact that Priscilla was barely
into her teens, the pair started an intimate
courtship that lasted seven years before they
eventually married in 1967.
"He was very lonely and I occupied a lot of
his time.
I mean, he, he had an affinity toward me.
You know, he had a great care for me."
In her book, Elvis and Me: The True Story
of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and
the King of Rock N' Roll, Priscilla detailed
how she wanted to lose her virginity to Elvis
during their early courtship.
However, the rockstar refused, telling Priscilla
that she was "too young."
The fact that Elvis found himself so attracted
to the young and virginal Priscilla becomes
even stranger when paired with an anecdote
from his ex-girlfriend Linda Thompson's own
2016 memoir titled, A Little Thing Called
Life: From Elvis' Graceland to Bruce Jenner's
Caitlyn & Songs in Between.
Thompson, who dated Elvis after his marriage
to Priscilla ended, was also a virgin upon
meeting the King of Rock n’ Roll, but that
apparently didn't bother Elvis a bit.
In fact, he seemed to prefer that Thompson
retain her virginity for a while, allegedly
telling her he wanted to, quote, "preserve"
her for as long as she needed.
If two unsettling instances makes a coincidence,
how many make a pattern?
Elvis' suspicious mind
Speaking to Jonathan Ross in 2015, Priscilla
Presley revealed that her late ex-husband
was a serious germaphobe.
In fact, Elvis Presley was so scared of other
people’s germs that he reportedly refused
to use anyone else's silverware, even while
dining at restaurants.
Priscilla told the talk show host:
"He never liked to go to people's homes to
eat because [he] didn't like eating with other
people's silverware, so he would take his
own silverware.
And he didn't like drinking out of cups that
other people had drunk out of, even restaurants
or other people's homes…So when he drank,
he would drink where the handle was, knowing
that no one would ever drink at that side."
Although that interesting tidbit of knowledge
had not yet been publicly known, Priscilla
dished that Elvis had actually been that way
for the majority of his life, telling Ross:
"I think he just didn't like to put his mouth
where other people put their mouth, with silverware
[and] things that you put in your mouth."
The good wife
Considering Priscilla Presley was just 14
years old when her relationship with Elvis
Presley began, it's no surprise that her own
life was quickly overshadowed by his spotlight.
In a 2016 interview for Loose Women, Priscilla
revealed just how much her relationship with
Elvis affected her sense of self as a young
woman:
"I didn’t have my teenage years as a normal
girl, obviously.
So I had to, I had to adapt."
Priscilla was willing to do whatever it took
to be the ideal wife to Elvis.
In her first-ever interview in 1973, she dished
to Ladies Home Journal that she’d decorated
the mansion she shared with Elvis exactly
how he wanted it, even though his style wasn't
her particular cup of tea.
Priscilla told the publication:
"You've got to do what a man likes…and he's
not going to be happy with anything feminine,
that's for sure."
Despite Priscilla's efforts at homemaking,
she and Elvis inevitably lived separate lives.
Priscilla pursued hobbies like karate and
ballet, while Elvis preferred to just stay
home when he wasn't on tour.
According to Priscilla, their conflicting
interests and Elvis’ intense superstardom
caused the couple to live in what she described
as a bubble.
That didn't work very well for a young woman
who never really got the chance to discover
herself.
Priscilla told Ladies Home Journal:
"I saw how Elvis had to be.
I mean, so publicized.
I could live my life and do what I wanted,
but it was not possible for Elvis to do this.
It was a shame."
Though they were seemingly still in love,
Elvis and Priscilla Presley just couldn't
make their marriage work.
According to the Memphis Press-Scimitar, the
couple’s divorce was finalized on October
9th, 1973.
Elvis hated his neck
Fame is a terrible drug that often pushes
stars into the oddest methods of trying to
stay thin and beautiful.
As Linda Thompson wrote in her memoir, her
ex-lover, Elvis Presley, had a number of insecurities
regarding his appearance, famously battling
both drugs and weight problems in the public
eye.
Presley’s weight issues would eventually
drive the superstar to bizarre measures in
an effort keep the extra pounds off, including
an alleged two-week period of sedation.
According to Thompson, during his weight-loss
sleeping period, Presley mainly stayed in
a slumber except for a few brief periods each
day when he’d wake up to go to the bathroom
and eat a small portion of food.
His ex-girlfriend also revealed that Presley
was known to crash diet on just 500 calories
a day.
Another alleged secret from Thompson's relationship
with the iconic singer is the revelation that
Elvis wore high collars in order conceal his
neck, which he apparently hated.
In her memoir, Thompson revealed that Elvis
wore the trademark style to keep his, quote,
"skinny little chicken neck" hidden from the
public.
At the age of 40, after years of wear and
tear, Presley allegedly opted for a facelift.
Thompson insists this was the only cosmetic
procedure Presley ever had done, writing:
"There has been speculation through the years
that Elvis had his eyes done or some other
mystery procedure.
But that mini facelift was the extent of his
plastic surgery."
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