{"id":52813,"date":"2025-09-30T21:15:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T21:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/52813\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T21:15:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T21:15:19","slug":"the-five-biggest-bombshells-from-priscilla-presleys-softly-as-i-leave-you-life-after-elvis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/52813\/","title":{"rendered":"The Five Biggest Bombshells From Priscilla Presley\u2019s \u2018Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turning the page! In her new memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis<\/a>, Priscilla Presley opens up like never before about the end of her fairytale marriage to the King of Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll and the years that followed their headline-making divorce. \u201cI did not leave Elvis because I no longer loved him. I loved him as much on the day I left as on the day we married,\u201d the 80-year-old writes. \u201cI left Elvis because I needed a life of my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pregnant Pause<\/p>\n

Shortly after marrying Elvis in 1967, Priscilla fell pregnant with Lisa Marie. It should have been a happy time for the newlyweds. Instead, they \u201cworried in silence about what was to come,\u201d she writes. At her lowest point, Priscilla wondered how she\u2019d feel if she miscarried. \u201cI felt so guilty\u2026 having these thoughts,\u201d she says. When Elvis asked her if she wanted to have an abortion \u2014 \u201che told me he\u2019d support whatever I wanted,\u201d Priscilla adds \u2014 it was a wake-up call. \u201cThe enormity of it hit me head-on, and I began to cry,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI told him, \u2018No! We can\u2019t do that. This is our baby!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lonesome Nights<\/p>\n

The Naked Gun star, who met Elvis when she was just 14 and he was 24, reveals that he lost interest in her sexually once they welcomed their only child, Lisa Marie, in 1968. \u201cHe had never been able to make love to a woman who\u2019d had a child,\u201d she explains. \u201cHe had put his mother on a pedestal, and after Lisa was born, he put me on one, too. It is impossible to make love on a pedestal.\u201d The new mom wore sexy negligees, did her makeup and even tried to initiate things in the bedroom. \u201cNothing worked,\u201d she writes. \u201cElvis remained flirtatious and very affectionate with me, but that was all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dating A Kardashian<\/p>\n

Following her split from Elvis in 1973, she was introduced to Robert Kardashian.\u201c[He] was a sweet man, and I liked him,\u201d she writes of the high-profile attorney, who died in 2003. But, \u201cthere was still Elvis to deal with, complicating things.\u201d One night, while Priscilla and Robert were in bed, the King called at 2 A.M. to chat about his performance that night. \u201cIt had\u2026 never occurred to him that I might be with another man,\u201d she notes. \u201cDespite our divorce, he still couldn\u2019t wrap his head around my being with someone else. He\u2019d have gone ballistic, maybe literally, if he\u2019d known Robert was in my bedroom. Elvis always carried a loaded gun, sometimes more than one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Getty Images<\/p>\n

Lisa Marie\u2019s Bad Marriage<\/p>\n

Priscilla didn\u2019t just disapprove of her daughter, who died in 2023, marrying Michael Jackson in 1994. \u201cI was appalled,\u201d she writes. \u201cI knew in my bones that Michael wasn\u2019t marrying Lisa Marie; he was marrying the Presley dynasty.\u201d Priscilla suspected that the King of Pop, who died in 2009, was using their daughter for good PR after battling child molestation charges the year before. \u201cMichael was a manipulative man,\u201d she alleges. \u201cI didn\u2019t trust his motives.\u201d Lisa Marie would soon question them, too. \u201cShe had begun to feel like the marriage was a setup,\u201d Priscilla says, adding that when Lisa Marie filed for divorce in 1996, \u201cI could practically hear Elvis sigh with relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

The King\u2019s Crutch<\/p>\n

In 1977, Elvis died at the age of 42 from heart failure, brought on by, among other factors, his abuse of prescription drugs. \u201cMost people think his drug problem started with the stimulants the army gave him, to keep him awake on patrol,\u201d Priscilla writes. \u201cBut in reality, the problem had started much earlier.\u201d The singer began self-medicating as a teen, taking his mother Gladys\u2019 \u201clittle pink pills\u201d for his own depression and insomnia. \u201cBy the time Elvis was in his thirties, the dangers of the drugs were well understood, but that didn\u2019t keep doctors from prescribing them,\u201d says Priscilla. \u201cHis doctors gave him anything he wanted. He was Elvis Presley.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turning the page! In her new memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, Priscilla Presley opens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9379,156,6227,157,111,139,69,6226],"class_list":{"0":"post-52813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-elvis","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-lisa-marie","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-priscilla-presley"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}