Lisa Marie Presley always was a daddy’s girl, said Danny Scott in The Sunday Times (U.K.). When she visited Graceland, Elvis lavished attention on his only child. “There was no schedule with my father,” says Lisa Marie, 44. “No rules. I loved it! Anything I wanted, I just had to ask.” Because Elvis spoiled his daughter, her mother, Priscilla, felt obligated to act as disciplinarian. “She was strict and regimented, and I hated it. She made me go to school, do my homework. And the more she clamped down, the worse I got.” Lisa Marie ramped up her rebellion after Elvis died, in 1977, and spent her teenage years taking drugs and running wild, much to her mother’s distress. “We were like oil and water. As far as I was concerned, she was a stop sign and it was my job to run her over.” This fractious relationship continued until Lisa Marie was well into her 30s. “It was only then that I [realized] how much she’d cared for me,” she says. “Dad was always my friend, and I wanted Mom to be my friend too, but she was being my mother. Now I realize I needed someone to say, ‘No!’ Looking back, it was Mom who kept me grounded, it was Mom who really kept me sane.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Jared and Ivanka's Albanian islandUnder The Radar The deal to develop Sazan has been met with widespread opposition
-
Storm warningFeature The U.S. is headed for an intense hurricane season. Will a shrunken FEMA and NOAA be able to respond?
-
U.S. v. Skrmetti: Did the trans rights movement overreach?Feature The Supreme Court upholds a Tennessee law that bans transgender care for minors, dealing a blow to trans rights
