Elvis’ Girlfriend Felt Relieved When He Started Dating Another Woman

After his divorce from Priscilla Presley, Elvis Presley had a number of girlfriends, including actor Sheila Ryan. Elvis pursued Ryan, but she never felt fully dedicated to the relationship. She was significantly younger than Elvis and felt uncomfortable with the way he romanced her. She admitted that when Elvis began pursuing other women, she felt relieved.

Elvis’ girlfriend wasn’t hurt when he started pursuing other women

Elvis and Ryan began a relationship in 1973 and were still seeing each other by 1975. Ryan always felt like she had one foot out the door in their relationship. 

“We would go out on the balcony, and he would sing songs to me, but it was never really romantic for me,” she said in the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “I had no concept of what love was. I was embarrassed by the gifts and wasn’t able to be gracious about it — that was the downfall of our first month together.”

Because of this, she felt relieved when Elvis began pursuing other women, like model Mindi Miller.

“There wasn’t much at stake,” she said. “I was his friend, I was his little pal, I was taking care of him. The physical side was never very much, and it just became less and less. I wasn’t ever jealous — you know, Elvis thought I was a helluva girl.”

Elvis’ girlfriend had always felt slightly uncomfortable in the relationship

On Elvis and Ryan’s first date, she found herself wincing away from him. His childish behavior surprised her, and she struggled to come to terms with his fame. He had been in the spotlight since she was a child, and she found it difficult to separate him from his public persona.

“Anyway, he just went on about his normal routine, and then at some point I guess he kissed me,” she said. “The way I felt about it, really, was I was doing it, but I wasn’t in the situation, I was looking at the situation. I was observing, sort of, from out of my body, thinking, This is just too bizarre.”

She remained in the relationship with Elvis but pushed back against his many demands.

Elvis’ friends wanted it to work out with Sheila Ryan

Though Ryan wasn’t fully invested in the relationship, Elvis’ friends believed she was a good fit for the musician. They tried to teach her to be a good girlfriend to him.

“Joe [Esposito] liked me being with Elvis,” she explained. “There were women I think that didn’t get in because Joe and the boys didn’t like them. But Joe was saying, ‘Now, Sheila, part of Elvis is giving, and he loves to give, and if you don’t show him some sort of reaction, it’s hard for him.’ So I tried to learn that, you know.”

Ultimately, Ryan felt that fitting into Elvis’ life was unnatural to her. 

“He gave me a car, and I remember going, ‘Oh, God, it’s beautiful, I love it!’ And feeling like such a phony,” she recalled. “I mean, it was me, not him. Here I am, twenty-one years old, and I’ve never owned anything in my life, and this man is giving me a brand new Corvette, and I’m like, ‘Thank you,’ without emotion. There is something wrong there.”