Priscilla Presley recounts Elvis calling at 2 a.m. while Robert Kardashian lay in bed, memoir excerpt says

Priscilla Presley says Elvis Presley phoned her at 2 a.m. in the middle of the night while her new boyfriend, Robert Kardashian, lay in bed beside her. The claim appears in an excerpt from her forthcoming memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, with the excerpt obtained by The Sun. "He'd have gone ballistic, maybe literally, if he'd known Robert was in my bedroom," she writes, noting that "Elvis always carried a loaded gun, sometimes more than one."

Priscilla began dating Kardashian in 1975, shortly after divorcing Elvis in 1973 and ending a relationship with karate instructor Mike Stone. Kardashian, who later married Kris Jenner in 1978 before their 1991 divorce, is described by friends as having made her happy. "Robert was a sweet man, and I liked him," his friend Joni Migdal said in Jerry Oppenheimer's 2017 book The Kardashians: An American Drama. "He wanted to marry her and have children with her. That was definitely his hope, his plan." Kardashian's friend Larry Kraines also recalled that Elvis could be possessive: "This guy Elvis doesn't stop controlling [Priscilla]." Kardashian allegedly confided that Elvis wasn't comfortable with her dating because of their daughter, Lisa Marie. Lisa Marie Presley died in 2023 at 54.

Despite the tension, Priscilla insisted she and Kardashian remained close. Before his death from cancer in 2003, his daughter Kim Kardashian phoned her from the hospital so they could speak one last time. "Robert and I had one last conversation before he died," Priscilla wrote. "He was the kindest of men, and I remember him with great affection." Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis will be released on September 23.