Elvis Presley’s widow Tuesday managed to call off a legal battle over control of the King of Rock’s legacy in front of her granddaughter, actress Riley Keough. The confrontation between the two women was due to a clause added in 2016 to the will of Lisa Marie Presley: daughter of Priscilla and mother of Riley, who died last January after suffering a cardiac arrest in Los Angeles.
In practice, the change that Lisa Marie had made in secret removed her mother from the management of the Graceland estate, which turns in millions of profits each year, and from the company handling Elvis’ image rights. When sitting down to talk with Riley, Priscilla demanded that she be guaranteed the right to be buried next to her late husband in the Meditation Garden of their famous Memphis mansion.
His in-laws and his other grandson Benjamin, son of Lisa Marie, who took his own life in 2020, also rest in that cemetery. The problem is that Elvis’ grave is next to the graves of his beloved mother and his father, so they must be moved so that Priscilla can spend eternity with him. And Riley isn’t about to move her great-grandmother’s remains.
The request was described as “impossible” from the start, so Priscilla backed out without putting up much of a fight: “Although I don’t plan on leaving anywhere anytime soon, my family and I are committed to our daughter and love.” want to rest with. my life when the time comes”, he has apparently accepted defeat and made it clear that he still has a plot in reserve.
His lawyer assured in a court hearing in Los Angeles that all the parties involved are satisfied with the outcome of the whole case and are once again a joint family. The details of the settlement between Priscilla and Riley – which will be closed in an additional hearing on Friday, August 4 – were not disclosed in court, but the TMZ portal assured that the former would receive “millions” in compensation.
Ironically, Lisa Marie Presley never shared her mother’s emotional attachment to Graceland Cemetery because she felt too morbid to gaze at the graves of her loved ones from her window every day. “How many people have a family cemetery in their backyard? How many people have to remember their fate, their mortality on a daily basis? All the graves are lined up and there’s an empty one, right next to my grandma’s , waiting for me”, she revealed during an interview with Playboy in 2003.
