(CNN) — As the only daughter of the late Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, singer Lisa Marie Presley spent her life in the spotlight early on.
And public interest in his life, from his marriages to his private tragedies, never waned until, like his father, he was gone too soon.
Lisa Marie Presley died Thursday after going into apparent cardiac arrest. She was 54 years old.
“Priscilla Presley and the Presley family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Lisa Marie,” a family statement provided to CNN said. “They are deeply grateful for everyone’s support, love and prayers, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”
Days before his hospitalization, Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley attended the Golden Globe Awards in support of the Baz Luhrmann film “Elvis,” starring actor Austin Butler, who picked up an award for his portrayal of the King.
He spent his childhood in front of the spotlight
Born at the height of Elvis’s fame in 1968, Lisa Marie Presley was seen as the princess of the man celebrated as “the King of rock ‘n’ roll”.
Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley and Elvis Presley in an undated photo. (Magma Agency/WireImage/WireImage)
Elvis and Priscilla Presley separated in 1972 when their daughter was four, and she was just nine when her father died in 1977. He was 42.
Soon, she began acting out and experimenting with drugs, which resulted in her mother sending her to a series of private schools, including a boarding school in Ojai. Lisa Marie Presley noted to the Los Angeles Times in 2003 that when she was growing up, she “was kind of a lonely, melancholy, weird kid.”
“For a while I was in a real self-destructive mode,” he told the publication. “I never really fit in at school. It wasn’t really going in any direction.”
He wanted to leave his own mark on music
She was also the eventual sole heir to Elvis’ estate, as well as his sprawling Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. However, the powerful and ever-looming legacy of her father did not deter her from her desire to pursue a career in music in her own right.
Lisa Marie Presley launched her career in 2003 with a debut album titled “To Whom It May Concern,” which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart and was certified gold that summer. She wrote almost all the lyrics on the album and co-wrote all the melodies.
At the time, Lisa Marie Presley told Larry King that she had to “park” feelings of pressure and comparison to her legendary father.
“If I had been thinking about it, worrying about it, which I did for a long time, I never would have done what was innately in my heart, in my soul,” he said. “So I had to stop worrying about it, otherwise it would be too intimidating.”
Also around the same time, Lisa Marie Presley pondered whether her famous name was a hindrance or a help, telling Playboy that she didn’t ask “the tabloids to come after me every week.”
But, he added, “I would never take back anything about who I am or where I come from.”
“I would never want to be a part of anything else,” he said. “I feel honored and proud of my family and my dad.”
That first record was followed by two additional albums, 2005’s “Now What” and 2012’s “Storm & Grace.”
high profile weddings
Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson pose at the “Chateau de Versailles” on September 5, 1994 in Versailles, France. (Stéphane Cardinale/Corbis/Sygma/Getty Images)
Parallel to her musical pursuits, Lisa Marie Presley was married four times, including her marriages to music superstar Michael Jackson and actor Nicolas Cage.
She married musician Danny Keough in 1988, with whom she had a daughter, Riley Keough, and a son, Benjamin Storm Keough.
The couple divorced in May 1994, and approximately three weeks later, Lisa Marie Presley married Jackson in a ceremony that made headlines around the world.
Of Jackson, he said in a 2003 interview with ABC News and Diane Sawyer: “When he wants to lock you in, when he wants to intrigue you or capture you, or you know, whatever he wants to do with you, he can do it.” this complete ‘poor, sweet, misunderstood man, I’m going to save you’… I fell in love with him.”
Their marriage ended in January 1996.
Two years later, she married Cage after meeting him at a party, but was only married to him for three months, from August to November 2002. The divorce was finalized in 2004.
Lisa Marie Presley and actor Nicolas Cage in 2001. (L. Busacca/WireImage/Getty Images)
Her fourth marriage came in 2006, to her guitarist, music producer, and director Michael Lockwood. The couple welcomed twins Finley Aaron Love Lockwood and Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood in 2007. They divorced in 2016.
The tragedy of losing a child
In 2020, Lisa Marie Presley’s son Benjamin Keough committed suicide at the age of 27. Last July, she marked the two-year anniversary of Keough’s death on Instagram by sharing a photo of his matching foot tattoos.
Last September, she wrote an essay for National Grief Awareness Day, in which she spoke about the loss of her son.
“My life and the lives of my three daughters as we knew them were completely detonated and destroyed by his death. We live in this every day,” she wrote. “Grief is something that you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life, despite what certain people or our culture would have us believe. You don’t ‘get over it’, you don’t ‘move on’, period”.
Presley also said in the essay that she found solace in the company of people who have faced similar tragedy, adding that her daughters help keep her grounded.
“I keep going for my girls,” she wrote. “I keep going because my son made it very clear in his last moments that taking care of his little sisters and watching over them were at the forefront of his concerns and his mind. He absolutely adored them and they him.”
‘May he be at peace’
Tributes to Lisa Marie Presley poured in as news of her passing spread.
“This is devastating news. Lisa had the biggest laugh she’s ever known. She lit up every room and I am heartbroken,” Cage said in a statement provided by his representative Mike Nilon. “I find some comfort in believing that she has been reunited with her son Benjamin.”
Actor John Travolta wrote that he would miss his friend, “but I know I’ll see you again.”
“My love and heart go out to Riley, Priscilla, Harper and Finley,” she wrote on Instagram.
Actress Leah Remini said she was “heartbroken by the passing of Lisa Marie Presley,” adding that “Lisa did not have an easy life, as some might think.”
“May he be at peace, resting with his son and father now,” he wrote in Twitter.
CNN’s Chloe Melas, Jacqueline Rose and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.
