Ann-Margret and Elvis Presley’s Affair May Have Ended Thanks to This Interviewer

Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret shared a fiery affair after they met while filming Viva Las Vegas. Ann-Margret suggested that the two were simply on the same page, almost like soulmates, and that they shared what she called “a devil within.” However, Elvis Presley felt obligated to go through with his marriage to Priscilla Presley, and ended up breaking things off with Ann-Margret. However, some speculate that one particular interviewer and his question about their affair was what truly signaled the end of their relationship. 

Ann-Margret says their relationship was electric

Ann-Margret and Elvis Presley first met on the set of Viva Las Vegas, where director George Sidney introduced the two. According to Ann-Margret, the chemistry wasn’t immediate. In fact, it took time to grow. 

“‘Elvis Presley, I’d like you to meet a wonderful young lady, Ann-Margret,’ said George Sidney. ‘Ann-Margret, this is Elvis Presley.’ The significance was lost on Elvis and me. I reached out my hand and he shook it gently. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you,’ we said at the same time, which made us laugh and broke the ice,” Ann-Margret wrote in her autobiography.

“Initially, Elvis and I might’ve admitted that the only heat between us came from the hot desert sun. But others saw sparks from the start,” she added.

However, once they struck up their affair, Ann-Margret said they were like soulmates — especially when it came to music and dancing.

“We experienced music in the same visceral way. Music ignited a fiery pent-up passion inside Elvis and inside me. It was an odd, embarrassing, funny, inspiring, and wonderful sensation,” she said of their relationship.

“Little did we know we shared a devil within. We were quiet, polite, careful. But I knew what was going to happen once we got to know each other. Elvis did, too.”

Elvis Presley ended their affair

Eventually Ann-Margret and Elvis Presley ended their affair, with Presley feeling committed to his upcoming marriage to Priscilla Presley. Ann-Margret said she knew it was a matter of time.  

“There were other factors in Elvis’s life that forced him apart from me, and I understood them. Elvis had always been honest with me, but still it was a confusing situation,” she wrote.

“We continued to see each other periodically, until we had dated for almost a year. Then everything halted. We knew the relationship had to end, that Elvis had to fulfill his commitment.”

Priscilla Presley was naturally livid when she discovered the affair. In her memoir, she wrote that she hurled a flower vase across the room when she found out.

Some think this interviewer blew it

While Ann-Margret says she knew her affair with The King had to end eventually, some have speculated that one interviewer’s investigation led to the breakup. 

At the Viva Las Vegas film premiere, a reported allegedly claimed Ann-Margret told him that the two were engaged, and intended to get married soon. Elvis and Priscilla Presley were still engaged at the time. 

“According to Ann-Margret you were, or are, engaged to her. This is not true either?” asked the reporter.

“The papers quoted her as saying it, but later she told me how it happened. They asked if it were true she was in love with me. Well, she was in love with me and she didn’t want to lie about it,” Elvis replied.

Allegedly this spooked Presley enough for him to call it quits with Ann-Margret and commit to tying the knot with Priscilla Presley.