They were music's most famous couple, but after they famously divorced in 1973, Priscilla Presley has been very guarded about her relationship with "The King."
But now, at age 72, Priscilla says that she wants to "just tell it like it is," and is talking candidly about loving and losing Elvis Presley. "Over 800 books have been written about Elvis," she pointed out at an event called Elvis and Me: An Evening With Priscilla Presley, but only she knew "how much misinformation is out there."
"Either it's been altered, they're lies [or] they're somebody else's perception," she says about most Elvis biographies. Now she wants to tell her side of the story.
It starts in 1959, when Elvis was a sergeant in the Army, stationed at the same base as Priscilla's father, an Air Force officer. Priscilla was just a teenager when she met the singer (Elvis was 10 years older than her) but they quickly started a courtship that lasted for years.
Priscilla reveals that her parents were wary of Elvis at first. "Absolutely not!" her mother replied, after Priscilla asked to go to a party with the singer. "I won't let you walk across the street to see Elvis Presley!" Her father was just as stubborn, until Elvis walked into their home "in full uniform" and won him over in minutes.
But Priscilla also revealed the trials she faced as Elvis' bride, including death threats.
For the first time, Priscilla is sharing her most intimate memories of Elvis.
She says that in their earliest conversations in Germany, the singer revealed he was anxious he would lose fans to up-and-coming musicians while serving in the Army. Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, shared the same worry. And Parker's urge to make Elvis seem desirable made life hard for Priscilla.
Parker "didn't really want Elvis [to have] a steady girlfriend," she explained, because it might hurt the singer's popularity with female fans. Priscilla was kept cooped up at Graceland, away from the public eye, until she finally married Elvis. "He was kind. He just didn't want [fans] to know I was "˜the one."
But as their relationship became publicly known, Priscilla faced a backlash from devoted Elvis fans. She says that some even mailed her death threats, accusing her of "stealing" Elvis away from them.
"It was hard on me."
So were the singer's affairs with other women, which became harder to bear after the couple had their daughter, Lisa Marie. Still, Priscilla remembers her late husband as "a great dad," although "he did not change diapers. Not one. Not ever."
Instead, Elvis spoiled his daughter rotten, buying her fur coats as a three-year-old and giving her five dollars for every baby tooth she lost.
While fans still mourn the King's death, losing Elvis was hardest for Priscilla. She says the day he died was "the eeriest I had ever experienced... It's like the world stood still. I just couldn't believe my ears. Not him." Even today she admits it's "still hard" living without him, but she's focusing on being the best mother and grandmother she can be.
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[H/T: Closer Weekly]