Lisa Marie Presley started writing a book before she died. Riley Keough completed it
LOS ANGELES – Lisa Marie Presley‘s posthumous memoir will hit shelves later this year, thanks to her daughter Riley Keough.
Almost exactly one year after Presley’s unexpected death, Random House revealed Thursday that the singer was writing a memoir about her high-profile and complicated life as the sole child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. In a statement shared with The Times, Random House said that Presley asked her daughter to help finish the book before she died.
Presley died on Jan. 12, 2023, at 54 after she suffered a cardiac episode at her Calabasas home. The L.A. County Medical Examiner determined in July that Presley died from complications of a small bowel obstruction, which was linked to previous bariatric surgery.
Keough, star of “Daisy Jones & the Six” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” initially held off on collaborating on the book but picked up where her mother left off after Presley died.
“Riley carried a guilt that the world would never know the loving, joyful, and caring woman that she knew and grieved,” the statement said.
To complete the memoir, Keough listened to hours of Presley’s recordings, which touched on her father’s love, her complex mother-daughter relationship with Priscilla Presley, her highly publicized romantic relationships and the 2020 death of her son Benjamin Keough.
Described as the “most intimate look at the Presley family to date,” the currently untitled memoir is set to publish on Oct. 15.
“I was lucky to have had that opportunity and working on preparing her autobiography for publication has been a privilege, albeit a bittersweet one,” Keough said in Thursday’s announcement. “I’m so excited to share my mom now, at her most vulnerable and most honest, and in doing so, I do hope that readers come to love my mom as much as I did.”
In recent years, the Presley family has been at the center of numerous entertainment projects, including Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” in 2022 and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” last year. Before the latter made its debut at the Venice Film Festival in 2023, Priscilla Presley spoke about one of the final moments she shared with her daughter.
The “Dallas” and “The Naked Gun” star told the Hollywood Reporter in August that she knew “there was something not right” with her daughter’s health and that Lisa Marie Presley complained about pain in her stomach after they shared laughs during a Hollywood party.
“I still can’t believe it. I don’t wish this on any mother,” the Presley matriarch added.
After Lisa Marie Presley’s sudden death, Priscilla Presley and Keough engaged in a tense legal battle over her estate. Priscilla Presley and her granddaughter reached a settlement in May, making Keough the sole trustee of Lisa Marie Presley’s estate and, by extension, part of Elvis’ estate.
“Riley and I are on good terms,” Priscilla Presley said. “We were never not on good terms. That was all publicity.”