Priscilla Presley has opened up about her relationship with Elvis, including the first time they were intimate.
The pair’s relationship began when Priscilla was just 14 years old and Elvis was 24.
They met at a party in Bad Nauheim, West Germany, while Elvis was stationed with the U.S. Army in 1959.
Priscilla Presley and Elvis's Love Life
After Elvis returned to the U.S., the two reunited in 1962 when Priscilla’s parents allowed her to visit him in Los Angeles.
Two months before her 18th birthday, she was permitted to move to Memphis, where she lived near Graceland with Elvis’ father and stepmother.
By May 1963, Priscilla moved into Graceland itself. “Though Elvis and I had started a relationship when I was fourteen, it didn’t become a romantic relationship until I was seventeen,” she wrote.
“We waited to have sex until he married me at twenty-one. The fact remains, however, that there were ten years between us.”
They tied the knot in 1967, and just weeks later, discovered Priscilla was pregnant with their only child, Lisa Marie.
Elvis and Priscilla's Marriage Collapses
While their marriage initially captivated the public, it was plagued by infidelity.
Elvis was rumored to have cheated multiple times, and in 1973, Priscilla left him after beginning an affair with her karate instructor, Mike Stone.
Elvis was said to have been enraged when he discovered the affair. In her memoir, Priscilla reveals that he even considered violent retaliation.
She wrote that Elvis asked close friend Joe Esposito to hire a hitman to kill Stone, but he was eventually talked out of it.
She also recalled a deeply painful moment following the revelation: “Elvis made love to me forcefully, not forcibly. His usual tenderness and consideration for me were missing. It was emotionally hurtful, and it left me with an unhappy memory of my last experience of sexual intimacy with Elvis.”
She clarified: “But it was not the reason I left.”
Reflecting on the difficult decision to end their marriage, Priscilla shared: “As difficult as it was, I never regretted my decision to leave Elvis. But I never ceased to mourn it.”
Despite the divorce, which was finalized in 1973, the two remained connected through their daughter until Elvis’ death in 1977.
Life After Elvis
After her split from Elvis, Priscilla continued her relationship with Mike Stone until 1975. She later dated model Michael Edwards from 1978 to 1984, before beginning a long-term partnership with screenwriter Marco Antonio Garibaldi.
They welcomed a son, Navarone, in 1987 and remained together until 2006.
Elvis never remarried but shared a four-year romance with Linda Thompson before becoming engaged to Ginger Alden, his partner at the time of his death.
Losing Lisa Marie
Alongside painful memories of Elvis, Priscilla’s memoir also recounts the devastating loss of their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, who died in 2023 at age 54.
Lisa Marie passed away from a small bowel obstruction caused by adhesions from a previous weight-loss surgery, leading to cardiac arrest. Her death was ruled natural.
Priscilla shared the harrowing moment she made the decision to remove her daughter from life support. “I thought about my girl, my wild, rebellious, passionate girl, lying in a vegetative state for the rest of her life,” she wrote.
“I said what I had to. 'Take her off the machine, Doctor.' My voice was barely above a whisper.”