He’s been dead for 40 years but Priscilla Presley is still madly in love with Elvis Presley. The pair got married on May 1, 1967 and despite splitting in 1973, always remained close.
Priscilla appeared on last night’s episode of Sunday Night on Channel Seven where she spoke openly and candidly about the relationship she shared with “The King of Rock and Roll”.
The 72-year-old has made it her duty for the past 40 years to ensure her ex-husband’s memory lives on. Speaking to Mike Amore on the program, she said that Elvis was one of a kind.
“I’ve never met anyone like him, ever, he was very easy to love,” she said. “You couldn’t help but fall in love with him. He just seemed to have it all. He was every general’s soldier, he was every son to every mother, I mean he just connected. He connected.”
The pair met by chance at a party in Germany in 1959. Then a teenager, Priscilla recalled the first time she met Elvis and the first date they went on. She explained that he was dressed in full uniform. He’d just be drafted into the Army.
They eventually married and quickly welcomed their daughter, Lisa-Marie. Despite appearing as the perfect family to most of the world, Priscilla admitted that Elvis’ fame was one of the factors of their eventual divorce.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BM9-PPNDAHX/?hl=en&taken-by=priscillapresley
“It was the lifestyle. I couldn’t keep up, it was hard keeping up and I had a daughter,” she said. The actress also noted that Elvis’ cheating was another contributing factor. “He wasn’t faithful, not that he had someone special, but when you’re in the entertainment business there is always that and I tried to turn my back to that, but I just didn’t want to share him. Simple as that.”
Still, the pair shared a bond over their daughter and always remained close, something that Priscilla said she will always appreciate. She detailed how they would talk most nights and that she took comfort knowing that Elvis would still trust her with his problems.
“We never lost our friendship and our care for each other. He would call me at night. I really valued his calls. I valued him telling me what was wrong.”
During the interview, she spoke of how private Elvis was as a person but how she was forced to open the family home to the public shortly after his death in 1977. She had a lot of debt that she couldn’t pay off and thought that opening Graceland to Elvis’ fans was a great way for his memory to always live on.
https://www.instagram.com/p/6WOHJ3uL5g/?hl=en&taken-by=priscillapresley
She added that he wouldn’t be able to comprehend the impact he’s had on the music world and popular culture. “Elvis would never have believed that his home is now a museum but would have loved it and would have been the first tour guide because that is the first thing he did, was show his place,” she said.
Today, January 8, would have been Elvis’ birthday.
Just last month, Priscilla revisited some of Elvis’ most prized possessions as part of an Elvis on Tour exhibition, including some of his favourite instruments, costumes and outfits.