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Priscilla opens up about her daughter's death in her new memoir, where she attempts to set the record straight on her relationship with Lisa, her marriage to Elvis and more.
Priscilla Presley is opening up about the devastating death of her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.
In her new memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life after Elvis, out September 23, the 80-year-old star reflects on the painful decision to remove Lisa Marie from life support following her sudden hospitalization in January 2023.
"It was the second saddest day of my life, other than losing Elvis," Priscilla told PEOPLE. "It took a long time to come to terms with the fact that Lisa was gone."
Lisa Marie died at age 54 from a small bowel obstruction that developed after a prior bariatric surgery. Her ex-husband Danny Keough found her unresponsive at home before she was rushed to the hospital.
"We were there all day long," Priscilla recalled. "Lisa really wasn't breathing, so she was on the ventilator. For hours we were there waiting, hoping and praying until the doctor came in and said, 'Priscilla, I'm so sorry, she's gone.' We just couldn't believe it -- didn't want to believe it. It was hard on all of us, it still is."
In an emotional excerpt from her book, Priscilla describes walking into her daughter's hospital room and knowing deep down that Lisa Marie had already left.
"I knew from the first moment I walked into Lisa’s hospital room that she was already gone," she wrote. "She was hooked to a machine that was breathing for her, and she had a heartbeat. There was little brain activity. Her spirit, always so vital, wasn't there."
The Presley matriarch explained that after doctors revived Lisa Marie's heart, she asked what kind of life her daughter would have if she stayed on machines. "He looked at me with compassion and shook his head. 'No quality of life at all,'" Priscilla recalled. "I thought about my girl, my wild, rebellious, passionate girl, lying in a vegetative state for the rest of her life. I said what I had to. 'Take her off the machine, Doctor.' My voice was barely above a whisper."
She added, "The nurse began to unhook the apparatus that kept Lisa’s chest rising and falling. I looked at Danny and said, 'We have to tell them, Danny. So they can say goodbye.’ But as I began to move toward the door, I heard Danny’s anguished cry. 'No, Nona! Don't go! We can't leave her all alone!' It was unbearable. I began to sob. I don't remember falling. I know that [her cousin] Ivy caught me. After that, everything went dark. I can't remember. I don't want to remember."
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View StoryAnd it's not the only heartbreak she's endured in recent years, with Priscilla losing Lisa Marie's son Benjamin Keough to suicide in 2020, and helping her own son Navarone battle addiction.
"It hasn’t been easy at all," she told PEOPLE. "But you have to find strength."
Now, she finds hope in her family, including her granddaughter Riley Keough, and Riley's two young children with husband Ben Smith-Petersen.
"That's what makes me happy: knowing everyone is doing well," Priscilla said.
Softly, As I Leave You: Life after Elvis will be released September 23 and is available for preorder now.
