Riley Keough was long a “very proud” daughter to the late Lisa Marie Presley.
“I feel very proud and in awe of my mother, she somehow lived in honesty and truth all the time, no matter how uncomfortable that was for her or the people around her,” Keough, 35, wrote via Instagram on Thursday, October 3. “It was a really aspirational quality and just being around it was liberating.”
She continued, “This is also how she approached her autobiography. I know her intention was to tell a human story and connect to people in telling it. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to finish it for her.”
Presley, who died in January 2023 at the age of 53, had been working on a memoir titled From Here to the Great Unknown ahead of her death.
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“In the years before she died, my mother, Lisa Marie Presley, began writing her memoir. Though she tried various approaches and sat for many book interviews, she couldn’t figure out how to write about herself,” Keough wrote in the foreword, which was excerpted by People late last month. “She didn’t find herself interesting, even though, of course, she was. She didn’t like talking about herself. She was insecure.”
Keough added, “She wasn’t sure what her value to the public was other than being Elvis’s daughter. She was so wracked with self-criticism that working on the book became incredibly difficult for her. I don’t think she fundamentally understood how or why her story should be told.”
According to the Daisy Jones & The Six star, Lisa Marie grew “exceedingly frustrated” in her attempt and asked for assistance.
“She said to me, ‘Pookie, I don’t know how to write my book anymore. Can you write it with me?’” Keough wrote in the passage. “‘Of course I can,’ I said.”
Lisa Marie was a mother of four. She shared Riley and son Benjamin, who died by suicide in 2020 at the age of 27, with ex Danny Keough and twin daughters Harper and Finley, both 15, with ex Michael Lockwood.
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The late “Storm & Grace” singer was the only child of Elvis Presley, who died in 1977, and ex-wife Priscilla Presley. After Lisa Marie died in 2023 following cardiac arrest, she was survived by Priscilla, 79, her three daughters and first grandchild. Riley and her husband, stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen, welcomed daughter Tupelo via surrogate in 2022.
Riley confirmed her daughter’s birth at Lisa Marie’s funeral at Elvis’ Graceland Estate. (The actress is now the sole owner of the legendary Tennessee mansion, per Lisa Marie’s will.)
“Thank you for showing me that love is the only thing that matters in this life,” Smith-Petersen, 32, said, reading Riley’s eulogy on her behalf. “I hope I can love my daughter the way you loved me, the way you loved my brother and my sisters.”
From Here to the Great Unknown hits shelves on Tuesday, October 8.
