Elvis Presley Said ‘to Hell With Values’ About Raising Lisa Marie Presley
When Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley divorced, their daughter Lisa Marie split her time between both their homes. Priscilla tried to keep her daughter grounded despite the family’s fame and wealth. Elvis, on the other hand, had little concern for giving Lisa Marie a normal childhood. Whenever Priscilla complained to him about this, he responded flippantly.
Elvis Presley wanted to raise Lisa Marie Presley differently than Priscilla Presley wanted
Priscilla and Elvis both cared deeply about Lisa Marie; after they separated, they made sure to maintain a friendly relationship to avoid upsetting her. Still, Elvis and Priscilla disagreed over how to raise her.
“Her daddy handed everything over to her on the proverbial silver platter, which created conflict when she’d come home and have to deal with reality,” Priscilla wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “We had a running debate on how she was to be raised.”
Whenever Priscilla complained to Elvis, he brushed off her concerns or responded with jokes.
“‘To hell with values,’ Elvis would say, joking,” she wrote. “I knew that it was essential that Lisa gain some perspective, but try to explain that to Elvis Presley.”
Elvis Presley didn’t enforce many rules for Lisa Marie Presley
Because of Elvis’ lax approach to parenting, Priscilla often called to check in on their daughter when she stayed at his house.
“She’d visit Elvis often in both LA and Memphis,” Priscilla wrote. “He assured me that he would take good care of her, but his lifestyle was such that I could not help worrying. I’d call and check on her nearly every night she was away.”
Elvis was not honest with Priscilla about how things were going, though. She would call at one in the morning to make sure Lisa Marie was in bed, and he would assure her that she was asleep.
“Within minutes, Aunt Delta called me and complained that Lisa wasn’t in bed and she couldn’t get her to take her bath,” Priscilla said. “I talked to Lisa, who said, ‘Well, Daddy wanted me to stay up.'”
When Priscilla would call Elvis back, upset that their under-ten-year-old daughter was still awake in the early hours of the morning, he wrote off her concerns entirely.
“Ah, let her stay up,” he told Priscilla. “It’s no big deal.”
Priscilla Presley said her husband was hesitant to discipline their daughter
Elvis preferred to let Lisa Marie do as she pleased because he did not like disciplining her. When he occasionally did, he worried he had done the wrong thing.
“Although Elvis much preferred to spoil Lisa, he did discipline her from time to time,” Priscilla wrote. “Once he paddled her for writing all over a beautiful velvet couch with crayons. Then he immediately went into a panic, wanting me to assure him that he’d done the right thing and that Lisa wouldn’t hold it against him.”
For the most part, though, Elvis left the disciplining up to Priscilla.
