Priscilla Presley says Michael Jackson used Lisa Marie Presley for publicity, per memoir remarks

Priscilla Presley says she doubted the marriage between her daughter Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson, suggesting she believed the pop icon was using Lisa Marie for publicity. The remarks appear in Presley’s memoir Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis, released Sept. 23, and during her Wednesday appearance on ABC's The View. Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023 at age 54; she and Jackson wed in 1994 and divorced two years later, according to public accounts.

Priscilla described Michael Jackson as an entertainer who loved being out in public, noting that he never really went with anybody before but that he enjoyed public life. “Michael loved to be out in public, and I recognized that,” she said. She added that Lisa Marie was “just coming out in the public eye” at the time and that she “felt in a way that he was using her”—publicity-wise, to borrow the phrase echoed in the interview.

Joy Behar asked what “using her” meant. Presley clarified that she meant “publicity-wise” and said she had doubts about marrying Jackson, even though she recognized his admiration for Elvis Presley. Presley recalled that Jackson spoke of Lisa Marie with reverence, a dynamic that gave her pause about the match and amplified concerns that the relationship might be as much about public interest as personal connection.

Priscilla said Lisa Marie was accustomed to fame, having grown up around Elvis and often accompanying him to Las Vegas shows and other appearances. She noted that Lisa Marie had been exposed to the glare of celebrity from a young age and had learned to navigate public life with a veteran performer’s poise, a reality Presley described as shaping her daughter’s choices.

She emphasized that her reflections come with the broader perspective of a mother who watched her own life unfold under the weight of enormous fame, and that Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis presents her side of the story in the years after Elvis Presley’s death. The memoir and the TV interview together revisit the era’s celebrity culture and the personal costs of living in the public eye.

The View airs on weekdays at 11 a.m. ET / 10 a.m. CT on ABC.