The Moment Priscilla Presley Knew She No Longer Wanted To Be Married To Elvis Presley
Priscilla Presley was only 14-years-old when she first met the rock and roll singer Elvis Presley. He was 24 at the time and already developed a massive fandom (Priscilla included.) But her love for Elvis only grew the more she got to know him, yet she admits in her memoir how challenging their relationship could often be.
Priscilla began to lose herself in the relationship and felt as though she didn’t have her own identity.
So after 13 years of being together, Priscilla finally decided to leave Elvis so she could find herself.
Priscilla Presley says she didn’t divorce Elvis Presley because she no longer loved him
In an interview with Loose Women, Priscilla says that she still loved Elvis when she divorced him. But despite her adoration for The King, she felt as though she didn’t have an identity of her own. Everything revolved around him.
“I just kind of followed what he did,” she tells Loose Women. “I mean, you lived his life. You saw the movies he wanted to see. You listened to the music he wanted to listen to, and you go to places that he would go… You honestly didn’t have your own life. … So you really kind of lost yourself.”
“I did not divorce him because I didn’t love him,” she continues. “He was the love of my life, but I had to find out about the world.”
Priscilla Presley discovered her newfound independence while practicing karate
When it came to being Elvis’s wife, he had rigorous demands. Priscilla wasn’t allowed to engage in many activities outside of their relationship, and her whole life had to revolve around Elvis. He wouldn’t let her have a job of her own because that would distract her from belonging fully to “the king.”
Yet while Elvis was on tour, Priscilla would attend karate classes that completely changed her outlook on life. She says that she was “growing and expanding as an individual” because of her karate lessons.
Karate taught her to be stronger and more independent. Because of this newfound inner strength, she decided to leave Elvis to find herself.
“A transformation had begun,” she reveals in her memoir. “Along with this new confidence, off came my false eyelashes and heavy makeup, the jewels, and flashy clothes. All devices that I depended upon for security now shed.”
Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley talked about getting back together after divorcing
Priscilla was sincere when she said she “never stopped loving Elvis” because, according to her memoir, the two discussed getting back together not long before his sudden death.
“Elvis and I were very close, even after we divorced,” Priscilla revealed to The Sydney Morning Herald. “He would still come over to my house. I would still sit in his lap. He would still call me my pet names that he gave me. He would still come by my house at two o’clock in the morning and talk for hours, and when I went to Graceland, it’s the same thing.”
Later, Elvis would tell her that the stupidest thing he had ever done was letting Priscilla be “the one that got away.”
“I know I’ve done some stupid things, but the stupidest was not realizing what I had until I lost it,” Elvis told Priscilla, according to her memoir. “I want my family back.”
