Priscilla Presley is reflecting on the last evening she spent with her daughter Lisa Marie Presley, just days before her sudden death in January 2023.
The 80-year-old attended the Golden Globe Awards alongside Lisa Marie to support Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic and its star, Austin Butler, who won best actor in a drama.
After the ceremony, the pair planned to grab a drink, but Lisa Marie complained of stomach pain and decided to head home.
“Little did we know how bad it was,” Priscilla told People in this week’s cover story. “It struck all of us, we were just dumbfounded.”
Two days later, Lisa Marie died at age 54 from a small bowel obstruction linked to a previous bariatric surgery.
In her forthcoming memoir, Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis (out September 23), Priscilla recalls rushing to the hospital and facing the painful decision to take her daughter off life support.
“I thought about my girl, my wild, rebellious, passionate girl, lying in a vegetative state for the rest of her life,” she writes. “I said what I had to. ‘Take her off the machine, Doctor.’”
Lisa Marie was laid to rest at Graceland, where she is buried alongside her father, Elvis Presley. Priscilla admits the loss remains devastating.
“It was the second saddest day of my life, other than losing Elvis,” she said. “You never really get over losing a child.”
