Lisa Marie Presley Thought Something Was ‘Wrong’ With Her Due to Priscilla Presley’s Lack of ‘Maternal Instincts’ 

While Lisa Marie Presley viewed her father, Elvis, as a god, her relationship with her mother, Priscilla Presley, was rather more complicated. Priscilla’s relationship with Elvis was fraught, and she had concerns that her pregnancy would impact her looks so greatly that Elvis left her. Later in life, Lisa Marie wondered if these feelings from her mother impacted her more than she imagined.

Lisa Marie Presley spoke about her childhood with Priscilla Presley 

Elvis spoke at length about his distaste for pregnant women who gained weight, leading Priscilla to worry about the way her pregnancy would make him view her. Lisa Marie said she was well aware of her mother’s concerns.

“My mother told me that she’d thought about trying to fall off her horse to cause a miscarriage,” Lisa Marie wrote in her book From Here to the Great Unknown. “She didn’t want to gain pregnancy weight. She thought that wouldn’t be a good look for her as Elvis’ wife. There were so many women after him, all of them beautiful. She wanted his undivided attention. She was so upset that she was pregnant that initially she’d only eat apples and eggs and never gained much weight.”

Lisa Marie went on to wonder if her mother’s trepidation negatively influenced her development. 

“I was a pain in her a** immediately and I always felt she didn’t want me,” she wrote. “I believe in energy in utero, so maybe I already felt her vibe of trying to get rid of me. Eventually she just kind of decided to keep me, but at the time, she didn’t have great maternal instincts. That might be what’s wrong with me.”

Priscilla admitted she worried about how her pregnancy would impact her marriage

Priscilla discovered she was pregnant shortly after she married Elvis. He felt excited about their child, but his attitude towards pregnant women made Priscilla worry.

“I loved seeing Elvis happy, but I was still uncertain about how my unexpected pregnancy would affect our marriage,” she wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “This was supposed to have been our time alone. I wanted to be beautiful for him; instead, my debut as Elvis’ bride was going to be spoiled by a fat stomach, puffy face, and swollen feet.”

She dieted rigidly throughout her pregnancy.

“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.”

While her doctor told Priscilla that weight gain was to be expected, she didn’t want to disappoint Elvis.

“As far as I was concerned, the less people mentioned about my looking pregnant, the better,” she wrote. “I intended to prove that a pregnant woman did not have to get fat. I wanted to refute Elvis’ claim that ‘women use the excuse of their pregnancy to let themselves go.’ Although the doctor said that a twenty-five pound gain would be fine, I immediately dropped from my normal one hundred ten pounds to one hundred.”

Priscilla Presley recalled the last time she saw Lisa Marie Presley

In 2023, Lisa Marie Presley died of a small bowel obstruction. Priscilla saw her for the final time just days before, at the Golden Globe Awards. They went to Chateau Marmont afterward for a drink.

“We both had our high heels on, and we tripped on the staircase, and we started laughing and giggling,” Priscilla told Piers Morgan, per The Sun. “We sat down, and she said, ‘Mom, I have to go; my stomach really hurts.’”

Lisa Marie insisted she was fine, and they parted ways.

“Then I hugged her, and she went her way, and I went mine, and that hug was the last hug I gave her.”

Two days later, Lisa Marie died.