More than two years since Lisa Marie Presley died at the age of 54, her mother, Priscilla Presley, is opening up about the final years of her life — and just how difficult they really were. While talking to People about her upcoming memoir in a heartbreaking new interview, Priscilla revealed that Lisa Marie “didn’t want to be here anymore” after her son, Benjamin Keough, died by suicide in 2020.
Benjamin’s death took a toll on Lisa Marie the most.
Though losing Benjamin so unexpectedly at the age of 27 was difficult for the entire family, Lisa Marie especially felt the loss of her son.
On his first birthday after his death, Lisa Marie paid tribute to Benjamin in a post on Instagram.
“I worshipped the ground you walked on, on this earth and now in Heaven,” she wrote. “My heart and soul went with you. The depth of the pain is suffocating and bottomless without you every moment of every day. I will never be the same.”
Benjamin was “the love of her life.”
While talking to People, Priscilla said she had to remind Lisa Marie she needed to live for her younger daughters, twins Harper and Finley, who are now 16.
“She didn’t want to be here anymore,” Priscilla said. “She wanted to be with Ben … I’d tell her, ‘Lisa, you’ve got the twins. You have to take care of the twins.’ She tried. She really did.”
When Lisa Marie died, Priscilla believed that she “wanted to go.”
In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, which will be released on September 23, Priscilla wrote about the day that Lisa Marie died, and how she knew her daughter would be at peace.
“Lisa really wasn’t breathing, so she was on the ventilator,” she told People. “For hours we were there waiting, hoping and praying until the doctor came in and said, ‘Priscilla, I’m so sorry, she’s gone.’ We just couldn’t believe it — didn’t want to believe it. It was hard on all of us, it still is. But like I said, she wanted to go. She did not want to be here. She wanted to be with Ben.”
Lisa Marie died three years after Benjamin after suffering from a small bowel obstruction.
