Less than two months after shocking accusations that Priscilla Presley “pulled the plug” on Lisa Marie’s life support out of greed, the grieving mother has broken her silence – sharing her heartbreaking final thoughts as she held the hands of her “wild” and “rebellious” daughter while she slipped into stillness.
In 1967, Priscilla Presley became a household name when she married the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. In their six-year marriage that ended in 1973, the pair had one daughter, Lisa Marie Presley who became the sole heir to Elvis’s massive legacy after his death in 1977.
In 1993, when Lisa Marie turned 25, she inherited Graceland and her father’s estate – a sum worth around $100 million at the time.
Lisa Marie’s sudden death
On January 12, 2023, Lisa Marie, 54, was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital after suffering cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, California. Hours later, she was placed on life support.
“We were there all day long,” Priscilla recently told People. “Lisa really wasn’t breathing, so she was on the ventilator. For hours we were there waiting, hoping and praying until the doctor came in and said, ‘Priscilla, I’m so sorry, she’s gone.’ We just couldn’t believe it – didn’t want to believe it. It was hard on all of us, it still is.”
Lisa Marie died that same day.
‘Second saddest day of my life’
Her death, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, was due to a strangulated small bowel caused by adhesions – a known complication from bariatric surgery she had undergone years earlier. The manner of death was ruled natural, the New York Post reports.
But that’s not where the story ends.
The $50 million lawsuit
Years later, in August 2025, the Los Angeles Times detailed a shocking lawsuit where
Priscilla’s former business partners – Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko – accused her of fraud and breach of contract, seeking at least $50 million in damages.
Among several other claims, Kruse and Fialko accused Priscilla of exploiting the death of her daughter to regain control of the Presley name, Graceland, and Lisa Marie’s trust.
And they’re pointing directly to her decision to take Lisa Marie off life support as a key part of that plan.
Shocking allegations
In court documents obtained by The New York Post, Kruse and Fialko claim: “Priscilla knew that Lisa’s death neutralized the threat of Lisa’s efforts to have Priscilla removed as the sole trustee of Lisa’s irrevocable life insurance trust, and Priscilla ultimately wanted to control the Promenade Trust and Graceland.”
According to the filing, Lisa Marie had been actively trying to remove her mother as trustee at the time of her death and had allegedly threatened legal action over the trust dispute.
Kruse and Fialko allege that Lisa Marie had clearly stated she wanted her life to be “prolonged as long as possible within the limits of generally accepted health care standards.”
Shockingly, the pair suggested that Priscilla dismissed her daughter’s wishes, and “pulled the plug within hours” of her daughter being admitted to hospital – a move allegedly motivated by her desire to control the estate.
Priscilla’s team fires back
The mom of two has fiercely denied all allegations. Her attorney, Marty Singer, released a scathing response, calling the lawsuit “one of the most shameful, ridiculous, salacious, and meritless” lawsuits he had ever seen.
“This is nothing more than a sad and vicious attempt to falsely tarnish the reputation of an 80-year-old woman,” Singer told the New York Post in a statement.
“It was the second saddest day of my life, other than losing Elvis,” Priscilla told People in the September 2025 interview. “It took a long time to come to terms with the fact that Lisa was gone.”
Final moments with dying daughter
“I knew from the first moment I walked into Lisa’s hospital room that she was already gone. She was hooked to a machine that was breathing for her, and she had a heartbeat. There was little brain activity,” Priscilla writes in her recently released book “Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis.”
In an excerpt shared by People, Priscilla recalls that after Lisa Marie’s heart stopped again, doctors were able to restart it – but warned there was no guarantee it would continue beating. When asked what she wanted to do, Priscilla questioned the medical team about what kind of life her daughter would have if kept on life support.
“No quality of life at all,” the doctor replied.
“I thought about my girl, my wild, rebellious, passionate girl, lying in a vegetative state for the rest of her life,” she writes in her book. “I said what I had to. ‘Take her off the machine, Doctor.’ My voice was barely above a whisper.”
“The nurse began to unhook the apparatus that kept Lisa’s chest rising and falling…
It was unbearable. I began to sob…After that, everything went dark. I can’t remember. I don’t want to remember,” she writes.
Please let us know what you think of Priscilla’s last moments with Lisa Marie, and then share this story so we can hear from others.
READ MORE
- Elvis Presley’s ”grandson” takes the stage and stuns audiences
- The real reason Erika Kirk didn’t wear black to Charlie’s funeral
