Riley Keough has unveiled a heartbreaking letter written by her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, in which she begged her father Elvis not to die.
Elvis Presley, who died in 1977 aged just 42, suffered with health problems in his later life – his daughter Lisa Marie was only nine years old at the time of his death.
Presley died in January 2023, aged just 54, after going into cardiac arrest as a result of complications caused by bariatric surgery she had undergone beforehand.
Now Presley’s daughter – Elvis’ granddaughter – Riley, 35, has shared letters written by her mother for the first time, with her posthumous memoirs on the way.
From Here to the Great Unknown was co-written by both Presley and Riley after the former asked her daughter to assist with its completion back in 2022.
And in preparation for the release of the book in mid-October, Riley spoke to Oprah Winfrey, producing letters written by Presley when she was a young child – one of which showed her concerns for her father’s health.
Riley told Oprah: ‘[My mother would] write these letters when she was little, that we have, kind of saying, “I hope my daddy doesn’t die.” So there was some kind of sense there.’
In the letter, which was written on plain notepad paper, Presley wrote about Elvis and her mother Priscilla Presley, ‘I love you, Mommy and Daddy, and I hope you gis (guys) don’t die. Love, Lisa’.
Priscilla, 79, whose life story with Elvis was dramatised by the 2023 Sofia Coppola film that was named after her, has sadly outlived her daughter.
In another part of the Oprah interview, Riley revealed that her mother ‘sensed’ Elvis was going to die on the day of his eventual death – August 16, 1977.
‘She said goodnight to him and I think she knew, saying “Goodnight”, like she had some kind of a sense – I think she had a sense many times that he wasn’t okay.’
Riley continued: ‘She would tell me that, sometimes, she would find him in his bathroom, looking kind of out of it, or holding onto the railing to stand up straight.’
The memoir comes less than a year after Riley and Priscilla reached a settlement after changes were made to Presley’s will before her untimely death.
Claims were made that Priscilla and Riley’s relationship was in turmoil after Presley disputed the ‘authenticity and validity’ of an amendment made to her living trust.
This amendment had apparently removed Priscilla as trustee and replaced her with Riley and her brother Benjamin, who died in 2020.
After 10 months of legal battles, the unfortunate dispute among the Presley family members was brought to an end, with Riley named as the owner of Elvis’ Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennesse.
A lump sum was given to Elvis’ ex-wife Priscilla after a Los Angeles Superior Court judge officially approved the settlement.