LOS ANGELES — Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of rock icon Elvis Presley, died Thursday, her mother said. She was 54.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla Presley said in a statement to the Associated Press. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”
The family is shocked and devastated by the death, Priscilla Presley said in a statement, that thanked supporters for the love and prayers and asked for privacy.
Hours before the announcement, Priscilla Presley said that her daughter had been rushed to the hospital.
Deputies and Los Angeles County fire personnel went to a home in Calabasas late Thursday morning after they received a call about a woman not breathing, officials said.
Responders were able to find a pulse, and she was transported by ambulance, officials said.
Her father’s legacy gained renewed interest last year through the movie “Elvis,” which chronicled his meteoric rise to fame and struggles with his controlling manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
Austin Butler, who played the title character, won the award for best performance by an actor in a movie at Tuesday’s Golden Globes.
Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley were both at the Beverly Hilton to see Butler win that award.
Lisa Marie was a singer who released her own rock albums in the 2000s and forever influenced by her legendary father.
“It’s been all my life,” she told The Associated Press in 2012, speaking of her father’s influence. “It’s not something that I now listen to and it’s different. Although I might listen closer. I remain consistent on the fact that I’ve always been an admirer. He’s always influenced me.”
She even formed direct musical ties with her father, joining her voice to such Elvis recordings as “In the Ghetto” and “Don’t Cry Daddy,” a mournful ballad that had reminded him of the early death of his mother (and Lisa Marie’s grandmother), Gladys Presley.
Elvis Presley died in August 1977, Lisa Marie was a 9-year-old staying at Graceland, his Memphis home, and said that when he kissed her goodnight she “just had a feeling.”
When she next saw him, the following day, he was face down in the bathroom.
“ All I know is I had it (a feeling), and it happened,” she told Rolling Stone in 2003. “I was obsessed with death at a very early age.”
Lisa Marie Presley has been married four times, most famously to Michael Jackson, as well as to Nicholas Cage, Danny Keough and Michael Lockwood.
Presley had two children, actor Riley Keough and Benjamin Keough, with her former husband Danny Keough. She also had twin daughters with ex-husband Michael Lockwood.
Benjamin Keough, died by suicide in 2020.
Presley was vocal about her grief over losing her son, writing in an essay in August that she had “been living in the horrific reality of its unrelenting grips since my son’s death two years ago.”
“I’ve dealt with death, grief and loss since the age of 9 years old. I’ve had more than anyone’s fair share of it in my lifetime and somehow, I’ve made it this far,” she wrote in an essay shared with People magazine.
Diana Dasrath reported from Los Angeles and David K. Li reported from New York.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The Associated Press contributed.
