Why Riley Keough Says Mom Lisa Marie Presley Died “of a Broken Heart”

Riley Keough knew her mom was struggling. 

Over a year after her mother Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, died in January 2023, the Daisy Jones & The Six star shared why she believes her mother’s passing partially stemmed from her late brother Benjamin Keough’s 2020 death at the age of 27. 

“My mom tried her best to find strength for me and my younger sisters after Ben died, but we knew how much pain she was in,” Riley—who is half sister to 15-year-old twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, whom her mom shared with ex Michael Lockwood—told People in an article published Sept. 25. “My mom physically died from the after effects of her surgery, but we all knew she died of a broken heart.”

Lisa, who died in 2023 due to a small bowel obstruction following bariatric surgery, had opened up about her grief following the loss of her son prior to her death. 

“My and my three daughters' lives as we knew it were completely detonated and destroyed by his death,” Lisa—who shared Benjamin and Riley with ex Danny Keough—wrote in a 2022 essay for People. “I've had more than anyone's fair share of it in my lifetime and somehow, I've made it this far. But this one, the death of my beautiful, beautiful son? No. Just no.”

Earlier this year, Riley, 35, and Penguin Random House announced they would be posthumously publishing a memoir by Lisa Marie, From Here to the Great Unknown, on Oct. 8. 

"Few people had the opportunity to know who my mom really was, other than being Elvis's daughter," Riley shared in a January press release. “I was lucky to have had that opportunity and working on preparing her autobiography for publication has been a privilege, albeit a bittersweet one.”

The upcoming memoir will be mostly written in Lisa Marie’s own words, with her eldest daughter adding context. 

Coming on the tails of Baz Lurhmann’s Elvis biopic in 2022 and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla film in 2023, the memoir claims to be “the most intimate look at the Presley family to date.”

“Her hope with this book was just human connection," Riley explained of her mother’s intention in writing to People. “I hope that in an extraordinary circumstance people relate to a very human experience of love, heartbreak, loss, addiction and family.”

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