Priscilla Presley is opening up like never before, about her marriage and subsciquent divorce from King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. In her memoir, ‘Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis’, she addressed how Elvis’ superstar lifestyle and alleged infidelities put strain on their relationship. While she knew of the ‘other women’, it was not the reason why she chose to leave him.
Prascilla on Elvis’ infedility
Priscilla recalled going through the mail in their Palm Springs home, when she discovered letters from other women. “I’m reading the mail, and the things that I was reading I really disapproved of and didn’t like,” she said.“They would go and meet Elvis at the house on weekends when he went, and it was another life. Now, he would come home great and wonderful. He was still a good husband but it was just too many of us.”
Why she divorced Elvis
In a snippet from her memoir published on OprahDaily, Priscilla described the heartbreaking personal reasons behind her decision to divorce the man that everyone wanted to be with. She said, “My choice to leave was terrifying for me and unfathomable to his millions of fans. What they didn’t understand was that I 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. I left Elvis because I needed a life of my own.”Going on to explain how it was to live her life married to the superstar, she said, “I was living his life. Just as Elvis was searching for the meaning of his life, I was searching for mine.”
Intimacy struggles
Priscilla also revealed how their intimate life had suffered after the birth of their daughter Lisa Marie. She claimed that Elvis ‘lost interest’ in her and said, “He had never been able to make love to a woman who’d had a child.” Explaining the reason behind the same, she shared, “He 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.”She added that despite her efforts, “The loneliness and sense of helplessness weighed heavier with every passing month. It was exhausting. I felt like I was, as the song goes, caught in a trap with no way out. I never want to experience that fear, that insecurity, again.”
Prascilla never stopped loving Elvis
Despite their divorce, she admits she never stopped loving Elvis. She said, “As difficult as it was, I never regretted my decision to leave Elvis. But I never ceased to mourn it.”Priscilla first met Elvis in 1959 in Germany when she was just 14 and he was serving in the army. They married in 1967, welcomed Lisa Marie in 1968. They ultimately divorced in 1973 after years of trouble in their marriage. Elvis passed away on 16 August 1977.Their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley tragically passed away in 2023 at the age of 54. Priscilla is also mother to Navarone Garibaldi, 38, with ex-partner Marco Garibaldi.
