Priscilla Presley says she was appalled by Lisa Marie's marriage to Michael Jackson, calling him manipulative in forthcoming memoir

Priscilla Presley says in a forthcoming memoir that she was appalled by her daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s 1994 marriage to Michael Jackson, describing the union as a marriage of convenience she did not approve of and a relationship she believed had dynastic aims. In an excerpt published ahead of the book’s release, she writes that Jackson was a manipulative man who had his sights set on the Presley dynasty long before Lisa Marie realized it. “I was appalled by the marriage,” Priscilla, 80, writes in Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, according to an excerpt published by The Sun on Saturday. She adds that she asked Lisa Marie if there had been a physical relationship, and Lisa Marie replied yes. “Like so many people, I wasn’t sure.” She recalls that she knew Jackson wasn’t marrying Lisa Marie so much as the Presley name. “Michael was a manipulative man, and I think he had his sights set on her long before she realized it.” The claim sits in the broader frame of a memoir detailing Priscilla’s view of the era and the tangled path of the Presley family.

The book excerpt also reinforces a portrait of Jackson that Priscilla has described in public appearances and other reporting: that the star projected a childlike innocence and a public mask that concealed more calculating aims. “The childlike innocence he projected was part of his public mask,” she writes, a line that echoes what she tells readers about the dynamics of the 1990s marriage and its aftermath. The excerpt notes that Elvis Presley’s daughter and the King of Pop married in 1994, but their union ended two years later. Priscilla writes that she could practically hear Elvis sigh with relief after the marriage dissolved.

The couple’s split did not end Lisa Marie’s public life in the spotlight. Jackson went on to marry Debbie Rowe and have two children, Prince and Paris, while Lisa Marie earlier had been married to Danny Keough, with whom she shared daughter Riley and son Benjamin (Benjamin later died by suicide in 2020). After her divorce from Jackson, Lisa Marie Presley married Nicolas Cage for a short time, then Michael Lockwood, with whom she had twin daughters Harper and Finley. That marriage ended in 2021. Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023 at age 54 from cardiac arrest caused by a small bowel obstruction. The Sun excerpt notes that Priscilla’s memoir also contains new details about Lisa Marie’s death and more about the family’s history.

In Lisa Marie’s own memoir, which was published posthumously, she sketched how her romance with Jackson began and evolved. She writes that Jackson told her, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m completely in love with you. I want us to get married and for you to have my children.” She recalls feeling swept up in a rare, intense emotion, acknowledging that she was in love with him too, and that the couple’s romance moved quickly from infatuation to marriage. She describes how Jackson declared his love, and how she initially hesitated about moving forward; she says she later realized she was in love, even as she wrestled with the public consequences of such a highly scrutinized union. The book also includes her claim that Jackson had been a virgin before they started dating, a detail she says reflected the broader mythology around his life and relationships.

The two-year marriage ended amid rumors and tabloid scrutiny that followed both stars through the 1990s. Jackson went on to remarry, while Lisa Marie pursued other marriages and, in later years, wrote about the complexities of fame, family legacy, and personal tragedy. The Sun’s publication of the excerpt underscores ongoing public interest in the intersection of the Presley dynasty and Jackson’s legacy, an intersection that continues to fascinate fans of music and pop culture.

Priscilla’s memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, is scheduled for release September 23 by Grand Central Publishing. The excerpt published by The Sun on Saturday highlights how the book broadens the narrative surrounding Lisa Marie and her relationships, including new details about her death and the family’s experiences in the decades since Elvis’s era. The Presley family has remained a focal point of cultural history, with Priscilla’s insights contributing to a long-running conversation about the dynamics of fame, power, and legacy in American pop culture.

The broader cultural conversation surrounding the Lisa Marie and Michael Jackson relationship continues to be framed by public disclosures from family members and biographers alike. While the memoirs offer personal perspectives, they also raise questions about how much private life should be disclosed by family members who were part of a public spectacle, and how those disclosures influence readings of a controversial chapter in 20th-century pop culture.

The reporting on Priscilla’s forthcoming memoir continues to unfold as publication approaches, with readers and critics likely to scrutinize the new anecdotes about the Presley-Jackson relationship, the pressures of fame, and the personal dimensions of a family whose story has been central to American popular culture for decades.