Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa-Marie has battled a difficult few years following her father’s death, suffering everything from drug addiction to a messy divorce and legal rows.
But now she has revealed her pride in coming out the other side and surviving, as she opened up in a rare interview on the US Today show – her first televised chat in four years.
The 50-year-old recalled thinking of her late dad and even speaking to him in the depths of her addiction, begging him for help.
“I think I already said, ‘help me, God help me’,” she recalled when questioned by presenter Jenna Bush Hager about what she would ask him now if she could. “I would want to know he’s there. Yeah, It would be pretty much, ‘I could use your help right around now’.”
Revealing her issues with drugs began when she was 45, she added: “I’ve come a long way, I was not happy.”
Finally seeking help, Lisa-Marie said her therapist even expressed fears for her life at her worst point, and explained: “My therapist said ‘you’re a miracle… I don’t know how you’re still alive’.”
Lisa was on the chat show to discuss and promote her new Elvis compilation album Where No One Stands Alone, which includes some of the musical legend’s gospel recordings. She recorded a duet of hit gospel song ‘Where No One Stands Alone’, and admitted she broke down in tears mid-way through.
Discussing the moving chat shortly after with her fellow co-stars, Bush Hager said Lisa-Marie also credited her children; daughter Riley, son Benjamin, and twins Finley and Harper, for giving her purpose to fight her addiction.
“She said that they’re the reason she’s alive,” the presenter recalled. “That they have given her a purpose in life and it’s helped her heal.”
Lisa-Marie was recently caught up in a bitter divorce and custody battle with her fourth husband Michael Lockwood – but she’s got a positive outlook on the future.
“I’m not perfect, my father wasn’t perfect, no one’s perfect,” she concluded. “It’s what you do with it after you learn and then you try to help others with it.”
It comes after she accused her former business manager Barry Siegel of squandering her share of her father’s US$100 million (AU$136.6m) trust fund, the Daily Mail previously reported.
The fund has now reportedly been reduced to just US$14,000, which Presley claims is a result of “reckless and negligent” investments.
Siegel is now counter-suing for US$800,000 in damages, claiming Presley lost the money through her “uncontrollable spending habits”.