Lisa Marie Presley kept her beloved son Benjamin’s body in her home for months after his suicide, according to a new memoir completed by her actress daughter.
It was revealed that Lisa, who died last year at the age of 54, was so heartbroken by her loss that she kept her son in a “separate cottage room” for two months, as she shared in her memoir. seen on page six.
“There is no law in the state of California that requires someone to be buried immediately,” he wrote. “I found a very empathetic funeral home owner… She said, ‘We’ll bring you Ben Ben.'”
Lisa reveals in published memoir todaythat her son’s body was kept at 55 degrees to preserve it and that she ‘got used’ to caring for him in the room before he was buried. Lisa would later be buried next to her son at Graceland.
Benjamin Keough committed suicide, aged 27, in August 2020, an event that would inspire Lisa to write candidly about grief until his death three years later.
Lisa Marie Presley and Benjamin Presley Keough photographed together in 2015
Michael Lockwood (CL), Ben Keough (CR) and Lisa Marie Presley (R) attend the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in London, November 11, 2010.
FROM HERE TO THE GREAT UNKNOWN is published by Pan MacMillan, available today
Lisa reportedly says in the book that she had to force herself to “fight” to stay alive for her remaining children after Benjamin’s death, which made it difficult for her to say goodbye to her son immediately.
She said she knew it was strange to keep the body in the house and wrote: “I think it would scare the hell out of anyone else to have their child there like that.” But not me.
She said she also had a hard time deciding where to bury him: in Hawaii or at the Graceland estate in Memphis, where her father, Elvis Presley, died and is buried.
Riley Keough, who survives Lisa with her twin siblings Harper and Finley Lockwood, now 16, co-authored her mother’s memoir to “make her a three-dimensional human being,” she said.
“My goal is not only to honor my mother, but also to tell a human story in what I know is an extraordinary circumstance,” he explained Saturday while recording an audio version of the book.
‘I am aware that the recordings my mother left are a gift. Very often, all that is left of a loved one is a saved and re-saved voicemail, a short video on a phone, and a few favorite photos. “I take the privilege of these tapes very seriously.”
Riley and her mother honored Benjamin by getting tattoos that matched his.
Since she had her sister’s name on her collarbone and her mother’s on her hand, Riley had her brother’s on her neck and Lisa had her son’s on her hand.
When the tattoo artist asked for photos of Benjamin to match the tattoos, Lisa said, “No, but I can show them to you,” according to Page Six.
“Lisa Marie Presley had just asked this poor man to look at his dead son’s body, which was right next to us…” Riley writes.
“I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five.”
Riley writes that soon after, everyone “got the feeling” that it was time to bury Benjamin.
A funeral was held in Malibu before Benjamin was buried at Graceland. Lisa would join her son after his death, buried in a shared plot to the right.
Lisa Marie died at the age of 54 due to a small intestine obstruction that developed after she underwent bariatric surgery several years earlier.
Shortly before her death, Presley asked Keough, whose father is Danny Keough, to help her write the memoir in 2022.
Riley will also narrate part of the audiobook along with movie star Julia Roberts.
Riley Keough, Priscilla Presley Lisa Marie and Benjamin Keough photographed for celebrations of what would have been Elvis’ 75th birthday, near Graceland, on January 8, 2010.
Riley Keough shared a photo of the last time she saw her mother before her death in 2023.
Elvis Presley with his wife Priscilla (R) and daughter Lisa Marie Elvis Presley (L)
In the memoir, Lisa Marie covers her love for Elvis and how much she struggled after his death, her romantic relationships, motherhood, the devastating death of her son in 2020, and the birth of her granddaughter, Keough’s two-year-old daughter Tupelo. .
“What she wanted to do in her memoir, and what I hope to have done in finishing it for her, is to go beyond the magazine headline’s idea of her and reveal the essence of who she was,” Keough told the magazine. talk to PEOPLE. in September.
Keough is set to hit the road in the fall for a book tour honoring her mother’s posthumous memoirs.
According to Random House, she will be accompanied by a special guest in six different cities, including: New York, Memphis, St Louis, Nashville, London and Los Angeles, this will be from October 9 and 20.
Pan MacMillan publishes the long-awaited memoir, FROM HERE TO THE GREAT UNKNOWN, today, October 8, 2024.
