Warning: This story contains mentions of suicide.
Lisa Marie Presley‘s death at 53 last year was attributed to a small-bowel obstruction the only child of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley suffered several years after weight loss-related bariatric surgery. But in a new interview with People magazine, Presley’s daughter, Daisy Jones & the Six star actress Riley Keough, said her mother’s passing was also due to a heavy emotional burden she carried.
Keough said that her brother Benjamin’s death by suicide in 2020 at age 27 had a profound effect on Presley. “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,” said Keough, 35, of Presley, who in addition to sharing Riley and Benjamin with ex-husband Danny Keough also had 15-year-old twins Finely and Harper with ex Michael Lockwood.
“My mom physically died from the after effects of her surgery, but we all knew she died of a broken heart,” said Keough. The People interview is packaged with an excerpt from Lisa Marie’s posthumous memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, which is due out on Oct. 8. Presley had begun work on the autobiography before her death, with Keough stepping in to finish the book by listening to the hours of tape her mother had recorded before putting her stories into print.
“This extraordinary book is composed of both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voice, a mother and daughter communicating across the transom of death as they try to heal each other,” reads a press release about the book. “Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other — the last words of the only child of a true legend.”
According to People, in the memoir Presley — who had previously told the magazine that she would never “move on” from her son’s death — says she and Keough healed their broken hearts by “helping people. One kid wrote to Riley and said, ‘I didn’t kill myself last night because of what you said it would do to my family and those that are left behind. So thank you.’ That helped me. That brought me up.’” Keough said that her brother’s death was “incredibly difficult to write about, as was my mom’s descent into addiction. And her own death, of course.”
The actress cautioned that the book is not strictly about grief, but also about the “very human experience of love, heartbreak, loss, addiction and family. [My mom] wanted to write a book in the hopes that someone could read her story and relate to her, to know that they’re not alone in the world. Her hope with this book was just human connection. So that’s mine.”
Keough will discuss the book in an upcoming Oprah Winfrey special from Elvis’ Graceland, An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley, that will air on CBS and Paramount+ on Oct. 8.
