Priscilla Presley, 77, was married to Elvis for six years in one of the most famous couplings of all time. They met when she was very young, and even though her father didn’t like the idea of her dating the legendary singer, love simply wouldn’t allow them to remain apart.
After she and Elvis divorced – and after “The King” tragically passed away – Priscilla went on to create a business empire, becoming a very successful businesswoman. Over the years, she’s also endured some rough times, including one recent failed plastic surgery procedure.
So how did she meet Elvis? And what is she doing today? Here’s all you need to know about Priscilla Presley …
Priscilla Presley was born on May 1, 1967, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Ann Iversen and Joseph P. Beaulieu. Her father was a Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, which meant that he was transferred to different places all the time. When Priscilla was ten, her family moved to Austin, Texas. Four years later, Priscilla and her family moved to Wiesbaden, Germany.
How Priscilla Presley met Elvis
For Priscilla, moving to a new part of the world must have been extraordinary. More significantly, it was there that she met Elvis for the first time.
Now, the city of Bad Nauheim is located not far from Weisbaddeen. Bad Nauheim was where draftee Elvis Presley was serving in the United States Army’s 3rd Armored Division. Elvis was 25 at the time; Priscilla was just 14.
About a week and a half after Priscilla arrived in Germany, she ate at a place known for its military personnel customers. Out of the blue, another customer suddenly asked her if she wanted to meet Elvis. She thought it was a joke, but the stranger didn’t mess around.
“For my so-called date with Elvis, I didn’t dress up; I just wore a little sailor dress, because I still didn’t believe it. And the next thing I knew I was on my way to Elvis’ house, which he shared with his father, Vernon Presley,” Priscilla recalled.
“Three or four of Elvis’ friends were with their dates, and a couple of girls dropped by. It was a very casual evening – a family atmosphere. Elvis was sitting in a chair when I arrived and he got up and shook my hand. Then reality hit me, and I thought, ‘What am I doing here?”
One might have thought that Priscilla’s parents would be over the moon about the prospect of their daughter meeting Elvis. However, that was not the case.
In a small piece for The Guardian, Presley wrote that her parents weren’t happy at all, especially not her father.
“My parents said that I shouldn’t date Elvis”
“But no one in the family expected things to turn out the way they did. A married couple with two children who were friends with Elvis took me to meet him on that first occasion and I couldn’t go, as it was an amazing opportunity,” she wrote.
“It was the equivalent of a 14-year-old today being given the chance to meet Justin Bieber. The second time I met him, Elvis played the piano and we listened to records and it was all innocent. When he invited me back again, my father said, ‘Why does he want to see you?’”
Of course, Priscilla was underage at the time; a decade Elvis’s junior. It was a lot for her parents – hardly convinced about the idea of her daughter dating a man that was so much older – to take in. Priscilla’s dad arranged a meeting between himself, Elvis, and Elvis’ father to talk more about the two love birds and what the plan for the future was.
“He arrived in his BMW wearing his Army uniform to impress dad,” Priscilla recalled in an interview with People in 1985.
Elvis succeeded in impressing her father, and the two started dating soon thereafter.
“At first, my parents said that I shouldn’t date Elvis, that I was too young, which was true,” she recalled.
“My mother felt that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; and besides, it was not harming me. Finally, she prevailed upon Dad to consent. But he set up a 12 o’clock curfew. Each date with Elvis was the same. Usually, he’d have his father pick me up in a car.”
“Elvis would call after 7 to let me know that I’d be picked up at 8,” Priscilla told People. “I had to dress quickly, trying to find some way to appear older than my age.”
Priscilla Presley & Elvis – dating, marriage
In 1963, with Priscilla still in high school, she was permitted to move in with Elvis’s parents in Memphis. It meant being closer to the love of her life, and when she attended the local Catholic girls’ school, she was often picked up by Elvis in a limousine.
Before graduating high school, Priscilla moved into Elvis’ legendary home Graceland. She had promised her parents that the two were to be married. Later, in her autobiography Elvis and Me, she revealed that they didn’t have intercourse until the day the couple tied the knot in 1967 when she was 21.
“That was a promise he made to my father,” Priscilla told Closer Weekly in 2017.
After seven years of dating, on May 1, 1967, Elvis and Priscilla tied the knot in an intimate Las Vegas ceremony. The wedding – planned and organized by Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker – reportedly only lasted eight minutes.
As Elvis, at that point, had become a legendary artist, they didn’t want the wedding to become some sort of “circus,” as Priscilla put it. As a result, not many people were in attendance.
“My wedding was very unusual,” Priscilla told Closer Weekly. “It was the people closest to us, and private, and that’s how we wanted it. We didn’t want a fan club.”
Elvis and Priscilla welcomed daughter Lisa Marie nine months after their wedding in Las Vegas. But only four years later, things between the couple would take a turn for the worse.
Divorced in 1973
Elvis and Priscilla’s marriage ended in 1972, and the real reason behind their divorce – finalized in 1973 – was simple. Priscilla told Australian news outlet Sunday Night in 2017 that it was about infidelity – on both sides.
“He wasn’t faithful,” Priscilla said. “Not that he had someone special, but when you’re in the entertainment business there is always that and I tried to turn my back on that, but I just didn’t want to share him.”
In the early 1970s, Priscilla had started a relationship with her karate instructor, Mike Stone. Later, she claimed that the marriage to Elvis was trouble from the beginning. In her 1985 book, she wrote that she felt neglected and lonely, which pushed her toward the affair.
“I did not divorce him because I didn’t love him. He was the love of my life, but I had to find out about the world,” Priscilla said in 2016.
Priscilla was given custody of their daughter, Lisa Marie. They left Graceland and moved to the Los Angeles area, where they lived in a penthouse apartment in Pacific Palisades.
But just years later, in 1977, tragedy struck when Elvis passed away aged just 42.
Elvis Presley’s passing
Priscilla had known that her ex-husband’s health was declining, and she once even went back to Memphis and offered Elvis her help. Even though they had divorced, though, Priscilla felt that a piece of her died with him.
“We had a bond: We’d become closer and had more understanding and patience for each other than in our married life,” she wrote in Elvis & Me. “We even talked of one day … And now he was gone.”
Sadly, Lisa Marie Presley was present at Graceland when her father was rushed to hospital, where he would later pass away.
“I knew something was wrong because I was in my room which was right next to his bathroom,” Lisa recalled. “So I knew that something was very wrong. All the commotion and everything. I was a wreck.”
Following Elvis’s passing, Priscilla wanted to ensure that “The King’s” legacy was preserved forever. So, after returning from Italy – where she fled with Lisa Marie after Elvis’ death – she took charge of his estate and turned it into a business empire.
This included making Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland, a popular tourist attraction. The Elvis legacy, later on, evolved into merchandise sales and all kinds of businesses.
Priscilla Presley – building the Elvis empire
And all that is thanks to Priscilla’s hard work and dedication. In 2020, the Elvis estate made $23 million, putting Elvis at number five on Forbes’ list of highest-paid dead celebrities.
“Elvis said he would never, never sell Graceland, that was my main vision, that was my goal and my purpose: to keep it in the family and to do whatever I could to get it to where it is now,” Priscilla told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Obviously, who knew [what it would become]? It still amazes me. So many people come, once, twice, they come 20 times. There’s something very surreal, very calming, very spiritual about Graceland. And people feel it. I think he’s there. I feel his presence in that place.”
Priscilla later went on to pursue a career in show business herself. She starred in three Naked Gun films and appeared in the television series Dallas, among others.
In 1984, she found love again when she met Italian screenwriter Marco Garibaldi. They welcomed son, Navaronne, in 1987. Sadly, Marco and Priscilla’s relationship ended in 2006.
Since then, the Presley family has continued to grow bigger and bigger – Priscilla Presley has even become a grandmother. These days, she shares the beautiful joy of motherhood with her daughter Lisa Marie, who has four children.
Priscilla Presley – net worth, home, penthouse
Priscilla has also become a very successful businesswoman. According to Celebrity Net Worth, she has a net worth of around $50 million, which means she can afford a pretty big house.
In January 2020, she sold her Beverly Hills Mansion for $13 million, and not long after, bought herself a new place to live.
Priscilla reportedly purchased a penthouse in Le Parc, located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, California.
The area has many multimillion-dollar condos, with Presley’s new home at 3,242 square feet, as reported by Dirt. It includes three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms. Moreover, the property is said to have high security with both gates and guards. The news outlet also shared pictures of her penthouse.
Yet just as with all people, life has its ups and downs. Priscilla underwent a particularly difficult time of things about 15 years ago.
Throughout the years, many people have speculated whether she’s had plastic surgery or not.
Rumored and confirmed botched surgery
Priscilla herself admitted to having a botched surgery – one that turned out bad.
In 2003, Argentinian-born Dr. Daniel Serrano performed cosmetic procedures on several people. However, he injected Priscilla with low-grade industrial silicone similar to that used by mechanics to grease car parts, as reported at the time.
Serrano became the subject of an investigation after patients complained the injections caused paralysis, lumps, and craters in the face. He was later sentenced to prison time.
Even though Priscilla hasn’t been outspoken about her alleged plastic surgery, she confirmed that she was one of the victims treated by Serrano.
“Priscilla Presley was one of many documented victims of Dr. Serrano,” her spokesperson said in 2008.
“An investigation that uncovered his misconduct ultimately lead to his imprisonment. Ms. Presley dealt with this matter years ago and everything is now well.”
So has Priscilla Presley undergone any more plastic surgery than just the failed one back in 2003?
“She has had a good start but a bad finish,” the plastic surgeon claims
Yes, according to plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Robert Stephen Mulholland, the medical director and physician owner SpaMedica Cosmetic Surgery and Infinite Vitality Clinics in Canada,
“Her cheeks are a little over-augmented, and her mouth is a little pulled. She has had a good start but a bad finish,” he explained.
“Her brows, which used to be very severe eight years ago when she had a brow lift that changed her whole look, are now settled. And her eyes look fairly reasonable.”
Mulholland added that the “mid-face,” with cheeks, nose, and mouth is what makes her “little plastic.”
“I think at this point you’d want her not to do any more volume with the mid-face section – just let it settle a bit. If she’s had a tension pull, allow it to relax. And just allow her face to age more appropriately,” he said.