Priscilla Presley claims husband Elvis lost interest in her sexually following the birth of their daughter, Lisa-Marie.
The couple welcomed their only child in 1968, little more than a year after exchanging vows in Las Vegas, with Priscilla later claiming she fell pregnant on their wedding night.
But the actress, now 80, says her sex life with the self-styled King of Rock ‘n’ Roll rapidly deteriorated after she gave birth to Lisa Marie, a moment that would serve as the catalyst for his numerous infidelities.
Recalling their lack of intimacy in new memoir Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis, she writes: ‘Elvis lost interest in me sexually once Lisa was born… he felt no need to explain his relationships with other women.
‘I was to trust him and ignore whatever I might hear.’
Presley was 24-years old and a global star when he met his future wife, then just 14-years of age, at a party in West Germany while seeing out his military service with the United States Army.
Priscilla Presley claims husband Elvis lost interest in her sexually following the birth of their daughter, Lisa-Marie
The couple welcomed their only child in 1968, little more than a year after exchanging vows in Las Vegas, with Priscilla later claiming she fell pregnant on their wedding night.
The couple courted following his return to the United States and Priscilla has always maintained that she remained a virgin until their wedding night, by which time she was 24 years old.
In her new book, co-written with Mary Jane Ross, Priscilla also refutes earlier claims that Presley forced her into sex after discovering she was having an affair with her karate instructor, Mike Stone.
She writes: ‘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. But it was not the reason I left.’
The couple ultimately divorced in 1973 and Priscilla would eventually embark on a 22-year relationship with Brazilian screenwriter Marco Garibaldi, with whom she welcomed son Navarone, her second child, in 1987.
Presley, of course, had died ten years earlier in 1977 at the age of 42 after suffering a fatal cardiac arrest in the bathroom of his legendary Graceland home.
His ex-wife would endure further tragedy in January 2023 when Lisa-Marie, the couple’s only child, also died prematurely, aged just 54.
Priscilla later claimed her daughter, who had struggled with opioid addiction prior to her death, ‘didn’t want to be here anymore’ after her own son Benjamin committed suicide in 2020 at the age of 27.
Priscilla has always maintained that she remained a virgin until their wedding night, by which time she was 24 years old (pictured in Las Vegas on their wedding day)
The actress says her sex life with the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll rapidly deteriorated after she gave birth to Lisa Marie, a moment that would serve as the catalyst for his numerous infidelities
At the time of her death, Lisa-Marie was still raising her twins Finley and Harper, now 16, with fourth husband Michael Lockwood.
She was also mother to Zola actress Riley Keough, 31, by her first husband Danny Keough, who was also Benjamin’s father.
Writing in her new memoir, Priscilla said that after Benjamin’s suicide ‘I’d tell her: “Lisa, you’ve got the twins. You have to take care of the twins.” She tried. She really did.’
She described her daughter’s death as ‘the second saddest day of my life, other than losing Elvis. It took a long time to come to terms with the fact that Lisa was gone.’
Priscilla made the tough decision to pull the plug on her daughter’s life support machine hours after she suffered cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, California.
‘I knew from the first moment I walked into Lisa’s hospital room that she was already gone,’ she writes.
‘She was hooked to a machine that was breathing for her, and she had a heartbeat. There was little brain activity. Her spirit, always so vital, wasn’t there.
‘Riley later told us that while she was still on her flight, she had felt her mother’s spirit pass. But none of us was ready to give up yet.’
Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis is available to buy from September 23.
Lisa-Marie, the couple’s only child, died prematurely from a small bowel obstruction in 2023, aged just 54 (Lisa-Marie and Priscilla are pictured together in 2015)
