Riley Keough tells Oprah about Lisa Marie Presley's tough final years

Riley Keough joined Oprah Winfrey at her family's estate, Graceland, for an hour-long CBS special dedicated to discussing the new book, “From Here to the Great Unknown,” which Keough completed after her mother started earlier , dictating memories for a memoir Dying in 2022. Among the revelations that emerged Tuesday with the book's release and the prime-time event was how deeply Lisa Marie Presley was in grief in her final two years, although she had apparently overcome a drug addiction, although her health was failing.

Among the stories already most talked about in the book – and discussed in detail in “An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley” – is the extent to which Lisa Marie Presley literally doesn't wanted to let go of her beloved son Ben after he died by suicide in 2020.

As reported in the special, Lisa Marie kept Ben's body with her for two months after his death, unable to decide whether to have him buried at Graceland or Hawaii, but also feeling like they were better processing her grief could if his presence remained in the house for a longer period of time, even in death.

“On paper, I could see that this sounds completely crazy and absurd,” Keough said, “but my mother was just herself…You know, she wasn't a crazy woman.” She compared the way her mother was took longer to process death, more like what happens in non-Western societies – but admitted that it seemed bizarre to her when she looked at it through the eyes of others… which she could do as a visitor to the Death came to the house.

“It took about two months and everyone in the house was in the grieving process,” Keough said to Winfrey, who asked, “Can you explain how this can happen?” Keough said, “She did some wild things, but I think the plan was to bury him here (at Graceland) with her father. And we wouldn't come here for about three weeks. … She knew the woman was going to keep my brother at the funeral home and I think she just didn't like the idea of ​​him being far away and she didn't know what was being done. And I think that she just wanted to be in control of the situation, given our family and everything, and also just being a mother… Basically, she found a very compassionate funeral home owner who was a mother, and she said, ” Look.” If you do all of these things, you can keep him in one room. “You just have to have someone to take care of your body.” (In the book, Keough states that the room temperature had to be kept at 55 degrees.)

Winfrey prompted Keough to tell the story of how they hired a tattoo artist to have names tattooed on his hands that mirrored the tattoos on Ben's. Lisa Marie “really wanted the placement to be just right, and he's like, 'Okay, do you have any photos?' … And she said, 'No. But I can show you,'” leading him to the body in the next room. “I was silent because it's my mother and she does what she wants, but it was definitely one of the most absurd moments, (and yet) everything was very matter-of-fact. … God bless him, he was normal through the whole thing … Then when he left I thought, 'Do you know how crazy that was?'” Winfrey asked, “Can you imagine what that tattoo artist had to say to him “Family when he went home that evening?” Keough cracked, “I'm sure he'll write a book at some point.”

Although both the presenter and the subject smiled briefly as the strange story was told, the subject of Lisa Marie's extreme grief was treated with the utmost seriousness by playing tape recordings from her final months in which she spoke of being had not wanted to continue living “in the truest sense of the word” after Ben’s death. Although Riley says she had a close relationship with her mother, she says her brother's bond with Lisa Marie was similar to the legendary one Elvis Presley had with his mother Gladys.

As the new book reveals, Lisa Marie didn't have any serious drug problems after her teenage years – until she had twins at age 40 and then fell into a crippling opiate addiction and drug use after a C-section. Keough said that her mother actually managed to go through rehab more than a decade later and that she was proud of Lisa Marie for not suffering a serious relapse after Ben's death. But in her final year, the combination of ongoing grief and lack of care for her body created a threatening situation that left the daughter feeling that her mother might not survive long.

“There were a couple of times I was with her in the last three weeks that she was alive that I was concerned about,” Keough said. “I think for me there was always kind of an undertone because I felt like I was borrowing time with her.” Keough said the last time she saw her mother, “there was something strange about it.” I don't know how should I describe it? She just felt distant and tired.” Winfrey asked if Keough thought her mother was using drugs again. “It didn’t feel like drugs,” she said. “I have a lot of experience with medication. It felt like a tired person.”

There was at least some light in Lisa Marie's final months as she searched for a reason to move on. “I think her vision for her future path would be to do grief work and help other parents deal with grief. She would hold these meetings at her home, where she would provide small snacks for these families and have our grief counselor come and lead such grief circles. And she wanted to do a podcast. I think it had to be about my brother if she was going to somehow find a new path for herself.”

Less time was spent exploring Lisa Marie's marriage to Michael Jackson, which is discussed in much more detail in the book. Keough said her mother was truly and madly in love with Jackson before their marriage went south. “She was really obsessed with him. I remember when he came to his house and she ran into her bathroom putting on her makeup and panicked and wanted to dress up for him. She just loved him. … I can only speak about my experience with Michael, and my experience was that he was nothing but kind and loving toward me and my family, and I saw them in what appeared to be a happy, loving relationship. I think our version of normal was probably a little different, but it felt completely normal to me in my life.” (In the book, Lisa Marie addresses a common question and says that Michael told her that that he was a virgin when they met, but that ended before they got married.)

The special had its lighter moments, as Winfrey cheerfully announced, “Here we are!” as the crew arrived at Graceland, and shared memories of how she and Lisa Marie called each other “cousin” after the host during a visit a year In 2006, she shared the information that Presley was a surname on her maternal grandmother's side.

Keough showed off artifacts such as her mother's key to one of the golf carts she drove recklessly around Graceland as a youth and the contents of the black box that Elvis Presley dragged from place to place.

Winfrey asked Keough to share her fondest memory of her mother, and it was about how much Lisa Marie wanted to watch and rock her granddaughter Tupelo when Riley became a mother two years ago.

“She was such a great mother, but she was also particularly good with babies… Her instincts with babies were incredible. I think if I can just make (Tupelo) feel loved like my mom made us feel loved – it was really unconditional,” Keough said. And even when she was going through hard times, the drugs… you know, we got into arguments because she was doing things that I didn't approve of. We had terrible interactions, as you do with someone who is on drugs. But the love was always there.”

Winfrey said: “I know she’s going to love the fact that you and I are together. Wherever she is, she says, “Thanks, because.”