Priscilla Presley took a drastic step in 1973 when she divorced Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll. Now, she’s opening up about what drove her to that decision.
“Elvis was the love of my life,” Priscilla wrote in her new memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis.
Elvis and Priscilla tied the knot in 1967, when she was 21. The couple had their first and only child, Lisa Marie Presley, in 1968. A couple married only a year would be expected to still be in their honeymoon phase, but according to Priscilla, she was neglected while the musician toured.
“My life was his life,” she wrote. “He had to be happy. My problems were secondary.”
What became the final straw for Priscilla was Elvis’ refusal to be intimate with her after the birth of their daughter, Lisa Marie.
“He told me he couldn’t sleep with a woman who’d had a baby,” she shared in the memoir, adding, “I was devastated.”
In addition to a lack of intimacy in their relationship, the singer was also “chronically unfaithful.” Add to that his mood swings when he did drugs, and his temper, and Priscilla was convinced she had to leave him.
“I had to find out about the world,” she wrote.
However, despite the divorce, the duo remained amicable until Elvis’ tragic death at just 42 in 1977.
Priscilla says she “cherished the great times” they had together and that he was her soulmate.
“There was, and will only ever be, one Elvis,” she said, adding: “I never stopped loving him.”
Priscilla Presley never remarried after divorcing Elvis Presley.
