Priscilla Presley alienates Riley Keough with fight over Lisa Marie’s trust: report
Riley Keough has reportedly stopped speaking to Priscilla Presley as the grandmother pushes to assume control of Lisa Marie's estate, which includes Graceland.
Following reports that Priscilla Presley was estranged from her daughter Lisa Marie Presley for the last eight years of her life, it appears she’s on track to also alienate her granddaughter, Riley Keough, with her decision to contest an amendment to Lisa Marie’s will that left Riley in charge of her estate, including Graceland.
An insider close to the family told Entertainment Tonight that Priscilla Presley and her 33-year-old granddaughter have stopped speaking since Lisa Marie’s Jan. 12 death, due to Priscilla’s move to challenge the will. Lisa Marie died of cardiac arrest at age 54.
“Riley has been mourning the loss of her mother and is heartbroken to have to deal with a trust dispute with a family member,” the source told Entertainment Tonight. “She is heartbroken that this has turned into a public matter and knows her mother would never want this.”
Priscilla Presley, on the other hand, “is adamant that she has a valid case and that she will prevail in court,” the insider said. “Riley and Priscilla aren’t communicating at this time, but have been in communication through lawyers.”
A source earlier told Page Six that Priscilla Presley’s move to gain control of her daughter’s trust is nothing more than a “money grab.” Lisa Marie’s representative confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that she intended for Graceland, the former home of her father, Elvis Presley, to go to Riley and her 14-year-old twins Harper and Finley.
Priscilla Presley, Elvis Presley’s ex-wife, made the move four days after Lisa Marie’s public memorial service at Graceland on Jan. 22. In documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Priscilla asked a judge to invalidate a recently discovered 2016 document. The “purported amendment” to the trust said that Lisa Marie wanted to replace Priscilla and her former manager Barry Siegel as co-trustees of her trust.
In their place, Lisa Marie Presley wanted her children, Riley and her brother Benjamin Keough, to become co-trustees, reports said. After Benjamin’s death by suicide in 2020, Riley was left as sole trustee.
A source told Entertainment Tonight that it was “no secret” that Lisa Marie Presley always wanted her children to inherit her trust. “Lisa Marie’s children meant the world to her, and she would do anything for them,” the source said.
Joel Weinshanker, a Managing Partner at Elvis Presley Enterprises, spoke in favor of Riley Keough remaining sole trustee in the wake of Lisa Marie’s death, Entertainment Tonight reported.
“When Elvis passed away, he left everything to his little girl. He did so knowing that she would be the one to keep his legacy going,” he said in an interview on SiriusXM’s Elvis Radio. “I can tell you that (Lisa Marie) has, without falter, no matter what else was happening in her life, in her career, always been the one to look at what was best for Elvis… regardless of what somebody else was trying to do, regardless of what another family member (was trying to) do.”
It’s been reported that Lisa Marie Presley died with $4 million in debt and had multiple life insurance policies, with one set to pay out $25 million and the other $10 million, Entertainment Tonight said.
Priscilla Presley, 77, said she is challenging the validity of the amendment because she said it was “never delivered to (her) during Lisa Marie’s lifetime as required by the express terms of the trust,” Entertainment Tonight reported. Priscilla Presley also alleges that Lisa Marie’s signature on the amendment “appears inconsistent with her usual and customary signature.”
In a statement to the media, Priscilla Presley said she’s acting out of love and a desire to protect the interests of her granddaughters and the legacy of her ex-husband Elvis Presley, who died in 1977 at age 42. He had left his estate, including Graceland, his beloved in Memphis, Tennessee home to Lisa Marie Presley, his only child.
“I loved Elvis very much as he loved me,” Priscilla Presley said in a statement to ET. “Lisa is a result of our love. For anyone to think anything differently would be a travesty of the family legacy and would be disrespectful of what Elvis left behind in his life.”
Priscilla Presley also dismissed suggestions that there’s a family rift or that there was anything but “love” between her and her late daughter.
But sources close to Lisa Marie Presley have offered a different view, saying that the singer, had been “basically estranged” from her mother for the previous eight years, the New York Post reported. “Lisa didn’t want to have anything to do with her mom,” a source told the Post.
Another source told Entertainment Tonight last month that Lisa Marie Presley always felt that her mother “was trying to have control over her. … They did not have a healthy or close relationship and it was very complicated.”