Lisa Marie Presley leaves behind a music fortune and a family dispute
As Lisa Marie Presley’s three daughters stand to inherit her estate and their grandmother is contesting the validity of her late daughter’s will, some close to the family say the legal dispute now in a California court reflects a Presley family history of conflict over money.
Four days after Lisa Marie Presley’s Graceland memorial service, Priscilla Presley filed a petition challenging a 2016 amendment in her daughter’s will. The change removed Priscilla Presley and former business manager, Barry Siegel, as co-trustees and replaced them with her children, Riley and Benjamin Keough. Benjamin Keough later died in 2020.
Priscilla Presley’s petition alleges that she did not receive notice of the amendment while her daughter was alive as was required by her Trust. The petition also notes that Priscilla’s name is misspelt in the document, alleges the amendment was not witnessed or notarized and questions the authenticity of Lisa Marie’s signature.
Keough has not yet responded to the petition. CNN has contacted her representatives for comment.
Two individuals who were longtime friends of Lisa Marie Presley spoke to CNN about the estate dispute. CNN is not naming the friends as they were not authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the family.
One friend alleged Priscilla Presley’s petition is a “money grab.”
“This is about Graceland and the memorabilia that Elvis left to Lisa Marie,” the source said. “Lisa was the sole heir to his estate. She and her mother were estranged for the last several years. Lisa did not want her mother overseeing the estate. I believe Priscilla is after money and what’s inside Graceland.”
Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley’s relationship was strained over the years, the friends said, by their respective marriages and divorces, financial mismanagement, and personal trauma that has played out in the public eye as the former wife and the only child of the “King of Rock and Roll,” respectively.
CNN made multiple attempts to reach Priscilla Presley’s attorney to seek comment on this story. We have not heard back.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday to commemorate what would have been Lisa Marie’s 55th birthday, Priscilla Presley described her efforts to love and protect her daughter.
“My wish is to protect my three grandchildren and keep our family together,” she wrote. “From the first moment I held Lisa in my arms, I’ve protected, loved and guided her, as I have my son. Our hearts are broken, and I am having to learn to live without my only daughter.”