Lisa Marie Presley’s heart remained shattered after Elvis’s passing, which was a constant theme as she clumsily sought love and happiness throughout her relatively short life.

In her candid memoir, “From Here to the Great Unknown” (Random House, 281 pp., available Tuesday), completed by her daughter Riley Keough following Lisa Marie’s death at the age of 54, the sorrow is magnified and reiterated. This book serves as a compelling yet largely somber narrative.

The memoir is based on recordings of Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s daughter openly describing her experiences, structured in vignettes that shift between her voice and her mother’s. Nearly one-third of the text reflects on Lisa Marie’s childhood, touching on her complex relationship with her father and mother, along with substantial content regarding Michael Jackson.

There are notable gaps in the story, particularly concerning her marriages to Nicolas Cage and Michael Lockwood, which are briefly addressed by Keough, who also shares insights about Lisa Marie’s struggles with addiction and the eventual suicide of Ben Keough. Despite her evident passion for music, there’s surprisingly little focus on her professional career.

Among the most significant disclosures in the book are:

Lisa Marie Presley’s Longstanding Fears About Elvis’s Mortality

Lisa Marie recalled a time when she penned a poem that expressed, “I hope my daddy doesn’t die.” She recounts a frightening scene where she found him lying face down in the bathroom after he had collapsed while trying to grab a towel rack for support.

During her last visit with Elvis, she had just returned from playing racquetball. He embraced her, exchanged affectionate words, and told her to “go to bed.”

A commotion woke her up later to find Elvis being rushed out on a stretcher. At just nine years old, Lisa Marie retreated to her room, nervously smoking a cigarette as she awaited news. An hour later, she heard her grandfather Vernon lamenting, “He’s gone, he’s gone.”

Realizing her life had dramatically changed, she reflected, “My life as I knew it was completely over,” expressing her feelings of being left with Priscilla.

Riley added, “I remember feeling angry at Elvis for leaving my mother and causing all this suffering.”

Lisa Marie Claims Her Mother’s Boyfriend Abused Her

At age 10, Lisa Marie alleges her mother’s boyfriend, Michael Edwards, a model and actor, invaded her privacy one night. She writes about him saying he would teach her about what to expect as she grew up, during which he inappropriately touched her.

Priscilla was extremely upset when Lisa Marie disclosed the incident and called her in to confront Edwards, who tried to justify his actions by claiming it was a European custom for teaching kids.

However, the abuse continued. He would touch and spank her, warning her not to look, which left her with bruises. “I assume he was jerking off,” Lisa Marie stated. When Priscilla confronted him later, he made excuses, claiming he was drunk or that Lisa Marie was flirting with him.

“I was eleven, twelve, thirteen,” she noted.

One time, he reacted angrily when Lisa Marie left her underwear on the dryer, and in retaliation, he threw a chair at her, hitting her back.

YSL News has attempted to reach out to Priscilla Presley’s representatives for a statement but has not been able to locate contact details for Edwards.

Priscilla Enrolled Teenager Lisa Marie in the Scientology Celebrity Centre

As their relationship worsened, Lisa Marie writes about feeling a sense of freedom when Priscilla instructed her to pack her belongings in the middle of the night and dropped her off at the Scientology center.

In her new surroundings, she was quick to remove a large mirror from the wall, call her drug dealer, and invite him along with several others for a wild four-day drug binge.

Despite the chaos, she reflects, “Scientology actually helped.” She found the church to be a thrilling departure from traditional religion, describing it as attracting diverse, artistic individuals and becoming a community she resonated with.

Deeply Affected After Ending Pregnancies, Lisa Marie Planned to Have Riley Keough

She describes her abortion as “the most foolish decision I’ve ever made,” and shortly after that, she and her partner separated.

Consequently, “I strategized and plotted my next steps. I carefully tracked when I was ovulating” and met with Danny after one of his band’s performances on a cruise. Just two weeks later, with a positive pregnancy test in her hand, “Danny realized he had to marry me. I ensnared him. It wasn’t my intention, but it happened.”

Michael Jackson assured Lisa Marie Presley he was a virgin

He had only shared innocent kisses with Tatum O’Neal and Brooke Shields, and according to Lisa Marie, “he mentioned that Madonna had tried to get close to him once, but nothing transpired.”

“I was quite nervous, as I didn’t want to make any mistakes. When he leaned in for our first kiss, he initiated it. He took charge. The physical intimacy began, which surprised me. I assumed we might wait until marriage, but he insisted, ‘I’m not waiting!’”

Lisa Marie reflects on their early relationship as blissful: enjoying honeymoon days in Orlando and visiting Disney World regularly. “I felt genuinely happy,” she expresses. “I’ve never felt that joy again.”

“There was a unique energy about him, something truly extraordinary that I had never encountered before, except with my dad. … I fell for him because he seemed so down-to-earth.”

Regarding the accusations of child abuse? “I never witnessed anything remotely like that. I would’ve acted out if I had.”

In her grief, Lisa Marie kept her son Ben Keough’s body at home on dry ice for months

After Ben took his own life in 2020, she brought him home. “I became accustomed to caring for him and keeping him there” in a 55-degree room, she shares.

Lisa Marie and Riley chose to get tattoos of Ben’s name on their collarbones and hands, just like he had theirs inked. When the tattoo artist requested to see photos of where the tattoos were placed, what occurred next shocked Riley.

“I’ve led an incredibly bizarre life, but that moment ranks among the top five,” Keough recounts. Lisa guided the artist inside to open Ben’s casket so he could see his tattoos up close.

“Not long after, we began to sense a message from my brother that he didn’t want his body in our house any longer,” Riley writes. “It felt like he was saying, ‘Guys, this is getting odd.’”

Ben Keough once drove Lisa Marie across the country during a health crisis so she could use drugs en route

At the height of Lisa Marie’s drug struggles, which started after she had her twin girls in 2008, she was taking 80 pills a day.

“Everything in my life crumbled, it felt like a relentless barrage of challenges, and I could hardly endure any more pain,” she recalls.

She often traveled to Graceland to sleep in her father Elvis’ bed, Riley reminisces. She was “yearning for protection, eager to feel connected to her dad. … It felt like seeking solace in a church when everything feels lost and saying, ‘Please, Jesus, help me.’”

Due to her failing health, Ben arranged to hire a tour bus in Nashville to drive Lisa Marie and the twins to Los Angeles for medical care. “We chose to drive because I wanted to do cocaine the entire time and couldn’t do that on a plane,” she expressed. “I didn’t think I could handle airport security at all.”

While undergoing rehabilitation, Lisa Marie had weight-loss surgery that ultimately contributed to her demise from a small bowel obstruction.

Just two weeks before his suicide, Ben reached out to Lisa Marie about his struggling mental health

“I feel like something’s off with my mind or similar,” Ben messaged her. “I think I’m facing a mental health issue.”

Under the influence of alcohol and drugs, he hadn’t grasped the severity of his depression until it was too late, Riley noted. “He hadn’t attended therapy even once. And he hadn’t tried to take his life before – no overdose, nothing. No cry for help.”

Despite her own struggles, Lisa Marie managed to stay sober, even though “we all knew my mom would ultimately perish from a broken heart,” Riley shared.

This article addresses topics of suicide and sexual assault. If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.

If you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN provides support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE and online.rainn.org).