A new memoir about the life and death of Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s only child Lisa Marie has just been completed and published with the help of Riley Keough, the late artist’s oldest daughter with musician Danny Keough.
Keogh, who has shone as an actress and producer in her own right with Cannes, Emmy, and Golden Globe honors under her belt, opened up about her mother’s life and untimely death on the occasion of From Here To The Great Unknown‘s release on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
What was Lisa Marie Presley’s cause of death?
Lisa Marie died on Jan. 12, 2023, at the age of just 54. The singer had gone into cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, but first responders were able to detect “signs of life” after performing CPR which, according to TMZ, had been started by ex-husband Danny Keough. She was taken to a local hospital where she eventually died, People reported.
An autopsy published the following July revealed that the root of the heart attack had been a small bowel obstruction stemming from adhesions caused by a weight-loss-related bariatric surgery that Lisa Marie had undergone years before. Mother Priscilla told The Hollywood Reporter that she went out to celebrate the Golden Globes with her daughter just two days before her death but the evening was cut short when Lisa Marie began experiencing acute pain in her stomach.
We had just gotten there, you go down all these stairs […] I tripped a little bit because I had these high heels on, and she started laughing so hard. I started laughing. We hadn’t even had a drink yet. She goes, ‘Oh my God, Mom, you can’t even have a drink.’ … It was fun, a fun memory. Then we sat down and ordered drinks, and she says, ‘Mom, my stomach hurts really bad.’ We immediately got up and left.”
There is a history of heart issues in the Presley family, starting with Elvis himself who died from cardiac arrhythmia at 42 when Lisa Marie was just nine years old. His mother, and Lisa Marie’s grandmother, also died of a heart attack at 46. All three generations struggled with substance abuse namely alcohol and, in Lisa Marie’s case, prescription painkillers.
For the singer’s oldest daughter, however, Lisa Marie’s real cause of death was heartbreak. “My mom physically died from the after-effects of her surgery, but we all knew she died of a broken heart,” Keough told People. The 54-year-old never recovered emotionally from the death of her only son Benjamin Keough who, in 2020, died by suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The new memoir revealed Lisa Marie kept his body at her home for two months after he was gone as she struggled to say goodbye.
In 2022, Lisa Marie told People that she found strength in her daughters and her mission to take care of them. “I keep going because my son made it very clear in his final moments that taking care of his little sisters and looking out for them was on the forefront of his concerns and his mind. He absolutely adored them and they him,” she stated on the occasion of National Grief Awareness Day.
Lisa Marie also had two daughters in 2008 from her marriage to Michael Lockwood, Harper and Finley. Before that, she was famously married to Michael Jackson and Nicholas Cage.
Published: Oct 14, 2024 09:12 am