Lisa Marie Presley has revealed the heartbreaking reason she decided to keep her deceased son’s body for two months after he passed.
According to a memoir finished by her daughter, Riley Keough, the late daughter of Elvis Presley kept her sons body in a ‘separate casitas bedroom’.
From Here to the Great Unknown was released on 8 October and according to fans, its full of details of her incredible life.
‘There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately,’ she wrote. ‘I found a very empathetic funeral home owner … She said, “We’ll bring Ben Ben to you.”‘
She shared that she kept his body at 55 degrees and it was placed on dry ice. She notes that she ‘got used to’ caring for his body before he was buried at Graceland.
Benjamin died aged 27 due to suicide in 2020. Lisa herself, passed away just three years later and was buried next to her son.
She praised the funeral owner for organizing this unique set-up. Her daughter Riley shared that it was ‘really important’ for her mother to ‘have ample time to say goodbye, the same she did with her dad’.
In 1977 when Elvis passed, Lisa Marie was only 9. She shared in her memoir that they had an open casket at Graceland before he was buried on the property, which was ‘incredibly helpful’ with her grief. She shared that she would ‘spend time’ and ‘talk to’ her father and that she wanted the ability to do the same when her son passed. “That was part of why it took so long,” she wrote.
Lisa Marie shared that she fought to stay alive for her other children after Benjamin died. She shared that she knew it was odd to keep his body with her for months after he died, she wrote: ‘I think it would scare the living f**king p*** out of anybody else to have their son there like that. But not me.’
“I felt so fortunate that there was a way that I could still parent him, delay it a bit longer so that I could become okay with laying him to rest.”
Riley Keough, Lisa’s daughter, co-authored the memoir. While recording the audiobook, she shared: ‘I aim not only to honor my mother, but to tell a human story in what I know is an extraordinary circumstance,’.
‘I am aware that the recordings my mother left are a gift. So often, all that’s left of a loved one is a saved and re-saved voicemail, a short video on a phone, some favorite photos. I take the privilege of these tapes very seriously.’
Both Riley and Lisa got matching tattoos to commemorate Benjamin after he passed. He had his sisters name on his collarbone and his mothers name on his hand – so Lisa got his name on her hand and Riley got his name on her collar.
The tattoo artist asked for photos of Ben’s tattoo to match, to which Lisa said: ‘No, but I can show you’,
Riley wrote ‘Lisa Marie Presley had just asked this poor man to look at the body of her dead son, which happened to be right next to us…’.
‘I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five.’
Lisa Marie passed aged 54 due to a small-bowel obstruction that occurred after she got bariatric surgery many years before.
