The Presley Family Curse Explained
The following article includes mentions of addiction and suicide.
Certain families seem to face tragedy after tragedy without ever getting a lucky break. While the Presleys have long boasted the status of music royalty, they are particularly notorious for a string of early deaths and disasters — aka the so-called Presley family curse. For example, when Elvis Presley was born in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, he was already accompanied by misfortune: his twin brother, Jesse Presley, was stillborn.
In a 1978 interview with Good Housekeeping, The King's father, Vernon Presley, explained that he and his first wife, Gladys Presley, were over the moon when she got pregnant, despite their poverty. "I was only 18 years old, but throughout Gladys' pregnancy it never occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to take care of her and the baby," he reflected. Vernon started to worry during her complicated childbirth, however. "As her labor pains went on and on, I grew frantic," he recalled. "... After what seemed to me an eternity, a baby boy was born — dead. I was desolate at the loss of our child." But then there was a miracle: an unexpected twin, whom they gave the name Elvis. "Of course, Elvis and I both wondered, over the years, whether his life would have been drastically different had his brother lived," Vernon revealed. As a Christian, he decided that God had a plan for Elvis all along, adding, "Elvis was a special gift who would fill our lives completely."
Keep reading to find out about the other losses that the Presley family sadly faced.
Elvis Presley's beloved mother died at 46
Elvis Presley's beloved mother, Gladys Presley, fell ill right after he was drafted into the Army. According to biographer Peter Guralnick's book "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley," she was experiencing a problem with her liver. "Apparently she had some sort of clotting phenomenon that involved her liver and internal organs," her doctor later explained. Elvis flew out to visit her in the hospital as soon as the Army reluctantly granted him leave, frantic with worry. She died in 1958 at age 46.
Friends and family found the rock star to be a broken man at the funeral. "I've never seen anyone as sad as Elvis was," his friend, Judy Spreckels, later told CBS News, revealing that his grief was so intense that the tears never stopped. "We were in the front hall at Graceland and he stood there hugging me for a half hour. He was crying and crying and crying," she recalled, describing it as "the saddest thing I'd ever seen."
"It broke my heart," Elvis later reportedly said of his late mother (via The Sun). "She was always my best girl." Gladys' headstone, which features a Star of David to honor her Jewish heritage, was placed at the Meditation Garden at Graceland next to her son's grave.
The King became a recluse at Graceland
In his final years, Elvis Presley was divorced from his wife, Priscilla Presley, his health was failing, and he was reportedly increasingly paranoid about men being sent to kill him. According to biographer Peter Guralnick's "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley," The King allegedly even demanded that his bodyguard take out a $10,000 hit on one of his supposed enemies. The singer eventually called it off, declaring: "Let's just leave it for now. Maybe it's a bit heavy."
His nurse, Letetia Henley Kirk, later told Closer Weekly that "it was exhausting ... watching him slowly self-destruct." Presley reportedly increasingly turned to drugs, which seemingly "came from everywhere," Kirk explained. "His access to medications was overwhelming." Although he had chosen to hide himself away at Graceland for the most part during this time, he desperately missed the stage. "He was miserable because he'd gained so much weight," Kirk revealed. "He knew he was not going to be able to perform like he wanted to."
"I was very fortunate [to have known him]," she concluded. "I wish there was something I could have done to make him a happier person."
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
Elvis Presley's tragic early death at 42
The world was shocked when Elvis Presley died at only 42 in 1977. "I told him not to fall asleep in the bathroom and he said, 'I won't,'" his girlfriend, Ginger Alden, later told ET. "He turned, gave me a little wave, walked into the bathroom and I found him a little while later. It was a devastating day." Although it was hidden from the public, his pathologists found Quaaludes and several opiates, like codeine, demerol, dilaudid, and percodan in his blood, per PBS News Hour. Elvis' personal physician, Dr. George Nichopoulos (aka Dr. Nick), was later put on trial for over-prescribing opiates, per The New York Times, and the rock star's fans discovered the vast scale of their idol's private struggle.
His father, Vernon Presley, expressed his grief in Good Housekeeping, writing that he was "more heartbroken than I can express over Elvis's death" and that since it was so sudden, he had not yet accepted that his son could really be gone. "Yet, even while grieving, I've been greatly comforted by the thousands of fans who loved Elvis and who have expressed their sympathy," he added. Vernon would only live for almost another two years, before being struck down by cardiac arrest.
"There were so many deaths," Elvis' daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, recalled, speaking to the Los Angeles Times about experiencing great sadness at Graceland as a 9-year-old. "Once he died, my grandmother died, then my grandfather, my aunt, my uncle. My God. It was like the house had lost its life."
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
Two fans were killed at Elvis' funeral
The death of Elvis Presley sent shock waves around the world. Although he had mostly lived as a recluse in Graceland for years, he was still The King. He'd performed his last concert in June 1977, and millions of fans were devastated by the sudden loss just two months later. So when his father, Vernon Presley, decided that mourners should be able to view his open casket, it became an unbelievable spectacle: according to the Mirror, 30,000 fans — of the estimated 80,000 who turned up at Graceland — were able to go inside to see their dead idol.
As biographer Peter Guralnick noted in "Careless Love," local authorities requested that the National Guard help contain the massive group of fans. Bodyguards stood by the casket, but they couldn't stop one of Elvis' cousins from taking a picture of his body and selling it to the National Enquirer. Meanwhile, the security outside couldn't prevent tragedy from striking again when three girls were hit by a car, two fatally, while waiting in the large crowd at Presley's house.
As The New York Times reported, 19-year-old roommates and retail coworkers Alice Hoverter and Juanita Johnson had been such dedicated fans that they traveled over a couple hundred miles to see his body and pay their respects in Memphis.
Lisa Marie Presley's ex Michael Jackson died at 50
Two musical legacies were linked in 1994 when Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the King of Rock and Roll, married Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. "I am very much in love with Michael, I dedicate my life to being his wife," Lisa Marie gushed in a statement at the time, per The New York Times. "... We both look forward to raising a family." They broke the news of their secret out-of-the-country nuptials from Trump Tower in New York City, revealing that "we both wanted a private marriage ceremony without the distraction of a media circus."
Years after the couple's 1996 divorce, Jackson and Elvis Presley remained connected by the strange circumstances of their death. Before he could launch a planned comeback tour, the "Thriller" singer died suddenly in 2009 at age 50. Similarly to The King, Jackson's death was ultimately caused by prescription drugs provided by his personal doctor. And, as Lisa Marie observed on her blog at the time, her ex-husband had guessed his own fate 14 years earlier during a conversation about the death of Elvis.
"At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, 'I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, [die] the way he did,'" she wrote (via CNN), adding that she tried to persuade Jackson otherwise. "... He just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact."
Elvis' daughter struggled with opioid addiction
Elvis Presley had one child: Lisa Marie Presley, who took after her father by becoming a singer-songwriter. But that wasn't their only similarity, as the pair also shared a dependence on drugs.
As a grief-struck child, Lisa Marie started using drugs as a form of rebellion after her father's death, according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times. As an adult, she developed a serious addiction after being prescribed a short-term amount of painkillers in 2008 while giving birth to her twins. In 2019, Lisa Marie opened up about her drug use in Harry Nelson's book "The United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain." Discussing her own "difficult path" with opioids, the singer stated that it was crucial for those struggling with addiction to be open and freed from their shame.
"Across America and the world, people are dying in mind-boggling numbers because of opioid and other drug overdoses," Lisa Marie declared (via CNN). "Many more people are suffering silently, addicted to opioids and other substances. I am writing this in the hope that I can play a small part in focusing attention on this terrible crisis." She also wrote about how grateful she was to survive her own addiction after seeing so many people in her life ultimately die from theirs.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
The Presley family was plunged into debt
The Presley family never had the best luck with money. For example, Elvis Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, famously took advantage of his naive young star and offered him a deal where they would split any money 50-50 between them. Parker allegedly exploited Elvis so shamelessly that a judge in a legal case — which was eventually settled out of court — later declared that his extortionate compensation "shocked the conscience of the court," per UPI.
Decades later in 2018, Lisa Marie Presley filed a lawsuit against her former manager, Barry Siegel, claiming that he had devastated her finances and whittled her $100 million trust down to $14,000 through negligence and mismanagement, per Reuters. While suing him for $100 million, Lisa Marie also revealed that she owed $500,000 in credit card debt. During her divorce from musician-producer Michael Lockwood, also in 2018, the singer-songwriter claimed that unpaid taxes meant she owed $16 million overall.
Eventually, Priscilla Presley reportedly had to sell her Los Angeles house to save her daughter from debt. "Priscilla would never have done this if she didn't believe it was her daughter's last chance," a source alleged to Radar.
Elvis Presley's grandson died by suicide at 27
In July 2020, Benjamin Keough was found dead in Calabasas at age 27. Known for his striking resemblance to his famous grandfather, Benjamin had kept a low profile in the years before his death by suicide. He was the son of singer Danny Keough and Lisa Marie Presley, with whom he had a close relationship: Benjamin and his mom even got matching Celtic knot tattoos together on Mother's Day one year.
Lisa Marie was devastated by his death, as she later detailed in a 2022 essay about grief for People. "I've dealt with death, grief, and loss since the age of 9 years old," she admitted. "... But this one, the death of my beautiful, beautiful son?" The singer-songwriter went on to call Benjamin "the sweetest and most incredible being," adding that he constantly made her proud and that he "was so much like his grandfather on so many levels that he actually scared me."
Elvis Presley's daughter explained that the only way she navigated the tragic loss was by thinking of her other children. "I keep going because my son made it very clear in his final moments that taking care of his little sisters and looking out for them were on the forefront of his concerns and his mind," Lisa Marie added. "He absolutely adored them and they him."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Lisa Marie Presley died at 54
Lisa Marie Presley became the latest sad example of the Presley curse when she died on January 12, 2023. The King's only child was 54 at the time of her death.
"It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us," Priscilla Presley stated, per People, calling her daughter "the most passionate strong, and loving woman" any of them ever knew. She also thanked the public for their support during this difficult time, adding, "We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss." Celebrity friends like John Travolta and Tom Hanks also paid tribute to Lisa Marie and her children, sharing their heartbreak.
When paramedics were called out to Calabasas for a cardiac arrest earlier that same day, they had to perform CPR on the unresponsive Lisa Marie and decided to immediately transport her to a local hospital where she later died. The singer-songwriter had been the sole heir of her father's estate, and her three daughters would be inheriting Graceland, according to Good Morning America, where Lisa Marie would be laid to rest next to her father, Elvis Presley, and her son, Benjamin Keough.