Priscilla Presley couldn’t imagine there was room for any more tragedy within her family.
She’d lost her ex-husband Elvis, her grandson Benjamin, and ridden out more controversies than she could count.
But in the 77-year-old’s lifetime of loss, nothing compared to the shock of her daughter Lisa Marie Presley passing away on January 12, after suffering two cardiac arrests at age 54.
WATCH: Lisa Marie Presley opens up about Michael Jackson’s drug use.mp4
“Priscilla is inconsolable but she knows she has to pick up the pieces for Lisa Marie’s girls,” a close family insider tells New Idea.
“She will do anything to help them get through this.
“It’s a lot to deal with for someone Priscilla’s age, but she insists she’s up to the task. Really, she doesn’t have a choice.”
Racked with unnecessary guilt over Lisa Marie’s death, Priscilla paid tribute to her little girl, saying: “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman.”
Just days earlier, the incredibly close pair had attended the Golden Globes in support of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. They burst into tears when the film’s star, Austin Butler, declared his love for them when he won.
At times, Lisa Marie appeared shaky on her feet and was reportedly heard slurring her words.
It’s understood that Lisa Marie’s housekeeper found her unconscious at her Los Angeles home 48 hours later. The star’s ex-husband Danny Keough – who she’d been living with and leaning on since the suicide death of their son Benjamin in 2020 – performed CPR.
WATCH: Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley
Paramedics were able to restart the singer’s heart and transfer her to a nearby ICU, but Lisa Marie suffered a second, fatal, cardiac arrest while in hospital.
Lisa Marie’s death brings to a close her tragic life. It’s understood she “never recovered” from losing her dad, who died from a heart attack aged 42 when Lisa Marie was just 9.
Exclusive sources tell New Idea she’d “cry out for Elvis in her sleep” well into adulthood.
In her early years, Lisa Marie was a devout Scientologist, and met her first husband Danny at the church’s LA celebrity centre. They soon welcomed daughter Riley, 33, and Benjamin, who died aged 27.
She split from Danny in 1994 and married Michael Jackson, divorcing him two years later. In 2002, she began a two-year marriage to Nicolas Cage. They broke up in 2004 and she moved on with quirky musician Michael Lockwood in 2006.
The couple shared 14-year-old twin daughters Finley and Harper, but had an acrimonious split in 2021. At the time of Lisa Marie’s death, the ex-couple were still locked in a vicious custody battle.
She also suffered a well-documented painkiller addiction, and admitted to using cocaine.
“Out of everything that happened to Lisa Marie in her short 54 years, the hardest thing was losing Benjamin,” says our source. “She fell apart completely. Priscilla fears she ultimately died of a broken heart.”
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