Priscilla Presley Said Elvis Was ‘Adamantly Against’ Her Using Birth Control
Not long after Priscilla Presley married Elvis Presley, she discovered she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. While they had discussed wanting children, she hadn’t wanted them so early in their marriage. There was little she could do to prevent pregnancy, though. According to Priscilla, Elvis wouldn’t let her take birth control.
Priscilla Presley said Elvis didn’t want her to take birth control
After a lengthy relationship, Priscilla and Elvis married in 1967. Not long after, she began to suspect she was pregnant, much to her concern.
“I didn’t tell Elvis right away: I couldn’t,” she wrote in the book Elvis and Me. “But he saw that I was quiet and preoccupied. If I were pregnant, I knew that our plans to travel would have to be postponed. I wouldn’t be able to head off to some exotic locale and leave my child with nurses and maids. For the first year, I truly wanted to be alone with Elvis, without any responsibilities or obligations.”
Alongside her worry, Priscilla felt anger. She hadn’t wanted a baby right away, but he wouldn’t let her take birth control.
“For a few days I was angry with Elvis,” she wrote. “Before the wedding I asked him if I should start taking birth-control pills, but he had been adamantly against it. ‘They’re not good for you. I really don’t want you taking them. They’re not perfected yet, Baby. There’s all kinds of side effects.'”
Eventually, though, she told him, and he excitedly prepared for fatherhood.
Priscilla Presley said Elvis was similarly controlling when she was pregnant
Though Elvis was excited about the baby, he used Priscilla’s pregnancy as a way to exercise more control over her.
“Elvis was always talking about women who let themselves go when they were expecting, who used it as an excuse to gain weight,” she told The Guardian in 2005. “So I actually lost eight pounds when I was carrying! I ate only eggs and apples, I never drank milk.”
He also refused to let her see a doctor, which was particularly concerning given her restricted diet.
“No, I wasn’t allowed to see a doctor,” she said. “Elvis didn’t like to have new people around. We were in a cocoon at Graceland.”
She said the musician was extremely controlling in their relationship
Priscilla’s pregnancy did not mark the start or end of Elvis’ control over her life. All throughout their relationship, he worked to govern her behavior.
“At that time, I just liked that he was paying attention to me,” Priscilla told The Guardian in 2015. “He was very opinionated on what he wanted: ‘I don’t like you in that color. Brown isn’t good for you. Green looks horrible; it’s a dull color with no spark to it.’ I was a young kid, 16 years old, so I thought: ‘Oh, OK!’ It wasn’t until I got a little older that I started developing things that I liked.”
He had a say in her diet, medical care, clothing, posture, and friends. While Priscilla loved him, she eventually realized that she would never experience life if she didn’t leave him. The couple divorced in 1973.
