Priscilla Presley is revisiting Lisa Marie Presley and Nicolas Cage’s dramatic relationship.
“I liked Nicolas Cage from the beginning. Despite his stormy temper (which my daughter shared), he has a good heart and a great capacity for love. … Unfortunately, the kinetic attraction that drew them together also made it difficult for them to stay together,” Priscilla, 80, wrote in her memoir, Softly As I Leave You, which hit stands on Tuesday, September 23. “They were not only romantically passionate but also passionate, period.”
Priscilla added that her daughter, whom she welcomed with Elvis Presley in 1968, had “inherited” her father’s “temper along with his good looks.” She claimed Cage, now 61, “could match her in a fight toe to toe.”
“And oh my gosh, how they fought. They screamed and they yelled, they threw things, and sometimes they broke things. They broke up,” she alleged. “And the next day, or pretty close to it, they made up. Lisa and Nick broke up and made up so many times, it was dizzying.”
Lisa Marie Presley Through the Years
Priscilla claimed that Lisa Marie and Cage’s “solution” to bring stability into their relationship was to get married, which they did in 2002.
“Watching the relationship was like watching a soap opera. I was not surprised when they proceeded with plans for their wedding,” she penned. “Though I had little hope that the marriage would last, I did my best to be optimistic.”
While Priscilla was worried about Lisa Marie’s wedding day, she recalled how her daughter “looked beautiful in a traditional wedding dress.” However, her worries manifested three months later, when Cage filed for divorce.
“Lisa called to tell me it was happening,” she wrote. “She later described their relationship by saying she and Nick were like tyrannical pirates. When one pirate marries another, they sink the ship. It was an apt description.”
Lisa Marie Presley Wrote She ‘Always Felt’ Like Priscilla Didn’t Want Her
Lisa Marie and Cage finalized their divorce in 2004. Priscilla noted that despite the pair’s “tumultuous” relationship, they were able to remain “friends.”
“Nick later told Barbara Walters that he still missed Lisa every day, but if they got back together, things would end the same way,” she recalled. “They were better off as friends. I think they both gained a little wisdom from the relationship.”
When Lisa Marie died at age 54 in January 2023 due to cardiac arrest, Cage honored his late ex-wife.
“This is devastating news,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. “Lisa had the greatest laugh of anyone I ever met. She lit up every room, and I am heartbroken. I find some solace believing she is reunited with her son Benjamin.”
Lisa Marie Presley’s Dating History
Lisa Marie’s death came three years after her son, Benjamin, died by suicide at age 27 in 2020. (In addition to Benjamin, Lisa was mother to daughter Riley Keough and twins Harper and Finley Lockwood)
“My beautiful beautiful angel, I worshipped the ground you walked on, on this earth and now in Heaven. My heart and soul went with you,” Lisa Marie wrote via an Instagram tribute on what would have been Benjamin’s 28th birthday. “The depth of the pain is suffocating and bottomless without you every moment of every day. I will never be the same.”
She continued, “Please wait for me my love, and hold my hand while I stay to continue to protect and raise your little sisters and to be here for Riley. I know you would want that. Happy Birthday my sweet sweet Boy. You were much too good for this world.”
