Inside Lisa Marie Presley's Relationship History
The following article includes mentions of suicide, addiction, and child abuse allegations.
Lisa Marie Presley has been in the spotlight from the moment she was born. As the daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, she grew up and transformed in the public eye, and the singer-songwriter has yet to stop making headlines. But sadly, much of what has landed her in the news has been hardship as Lisa Marie has suffered more tragedy than most. Not only did she lose her father when she was just nine years old, but she's also waged a public struggle with addiction and, more recently, she was dealt a shattering blow when her son, Benjamin Keough, died by suicide. Opening up about the loss of the 27-year-old, she wrote in part on Instagram in 2020 that "the depth of the pain is suffocating and bottomless without you every moment of every day." The musician has also struggled with money for most of her life. That's partly because, when Elvis died in 1977, he left her his fortune, as well as his debt. Indeed, mounting financial troubles have continued and, as of 2022, she was still strapped for cash, with Celebrity Net Worth reporting Lisa Marie's net worth as being in the red at -$16 million.
Adding to all of these challenges has been her volatile relationship history. Lisa Marie has been married four times and, like these other aspects of her life, her unions have been marred by sadness and drama. Below we take a look at Lisa Marie Presley's high-profile romances and why they ended in divorce.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
First husband Danny Keough is still her best friend
Lisa Marie Presley was just 17 when she moved in with musician Danny Keough, per Marie Claire. Diving in head-first, they tied the knot in 1988 (she was 20; he was 23) and had two kids, daughter Danielle Riley and son Benjamin Storm. By 1994, however, they had called it quits. As Presley told Marie Claire, it wasn't just their youth that drove them apart, but her name. "There was so much resentment about who I was, because I had more than he did, and it became a power struggle," she recalled.
Despite butting heads in their marriage, Presley and Keough mastered the art of co-parenting. Speaking with Rolling Stone in 2003 (via Elvis Australia), Presley gushed, "He's my absolute best friend in the world." Indeed, she has no regrets about their union, adding, "The smartest thing I've ever done is have children with this man because I knew this is the one man I could be connected to for the rest of my life." There is one thing she would have done differently, though. As she confessed to Marie Claire, "Leaving my first marriage, for [Michael Jackson] — that was probably the biggest mistake of my life."
Showing just how strong their bond is, the exes decided to live together following the death of their son, Benjamin Keough. According to The Sun, the former couple and Presley's twins (whom she shares with ex Michael Lockwood) got a home together in Calabasas, California. "He's been a rock for Lisa," a source said.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Lisa Marie Presley had a difficult second marriage
Lisa Marie Presley shocked the world when she secretly married Michael Jackson in the Dominican Republic in May 1994, per People. The wedding took place just 20 days after her divorce from first husband Danny Keough was finalized, and it left many confused. Speculation about Lisa Marie's true intentions was rampant (most considered it to be a publicity stunt), but Elvis Presley's daughter was adamant: Their marriage was the real deal. "I am very much in love with Michael, I dedicate my life to being his wife," she proclaimed, adding, "I understand and support him. We both look forward to raising a family."
As it turns out, they had actually known each other since they were kids and had met when Elvis took his daughter to meet the Jackson Five. Even so, their union proved difficult. She and Jackson divorced in 1996, and Lisa Marie later told Oprah Winfrey of the highs and lows she experienced with the King of Pop. Clarifying that it was never about fame, she said she didn't want any of the added attention, but rather, "[I] loved being next to him and taking care of him."
Indeed, she said some of the best points in her life happened when they were happy and on the same page, but that wasn't always the case. Recalling Jackson's alleged struggle with addiction, Lisa Marie shared, "There was a very profound point in the marriage when he had to make a decision: Was it the drugs and the sort of vampires, or me? And he pushed me away."
If you or anyone you know is struggling 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).
She blamed herself for Michael Jackson's death
Despite what the public may have thought, Lisa Marie Presley loved being married to Michael Jackson, and she loved taking care of her husband, as previously mentioned. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to help him work through his demons, no matter how hard she tried. In the end, it was a short marriage, and they divorced in January 1996 — but when Jackson died suddenly at the age of 50 in 2009, Presley blamed herself.
As she wrote in a MySpace blog post, per Oprah.com, his passing mirrored her father's 1977 death, and that parallel was difficult to swallow. What's more, the music star shared how she and Jackson's family had been worried about him dying since the '90s and had unsuccessfully tried to help save him from what she called "certain self-destructive behavior and from the awful vampires and leeches he would always manage to magnetize around him."
Presley shared her efforts to help her then-husband, but confessed that her devotion to him eventually began taking a mental and physical toll on her. That's when she made the difficult decision to prioritize herself and her children and walk away. Even so, Presley never stopped thinking about her ex and what part she felt she may have played in his death. "After the Divorce, I spent a few years obsessing about him and what I could have done different, in regret," she wrote, calling Jackson's death "my biggest failure to date."
Lisa Marie Presley's short-lived engagement with John Oszajca
After Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson finalized their divorce in August 1996, her next big relationship was yet another whirlwind romance with yet another musician. Lisa Marie's real-life meet-cute with singer-songwriter John Oszajca (who was six years her junior) in 1999 was due to sharing mutual pals in Los Angeles — and later that year, the pair got engaged, per BBC News. According to the star's publicist, Paul Bloch, who confirmed the news in February 2000, the Hawaii native decided to pop the question on December 23, right after he asked Priscilla Presley for her blessing. The matriarch approved, Lisa Marie said yes, and they were ready to walk down the aisle.
As Oszajca told Entertainment Weekly in May 2000, he didn't mind having such a high-profile partner, and her fame wasn't an issue. Conceding that the press had mostly been kind enough to him, he enthused, "Not to be glib, but I'm happy. I don't spend much time thinking about it, really."
Despite such assurances, it seems they actually weren't meant to be. The couple called off their engagement in March 2001, with Lisa Marie's rep saying (via Deseret News) there was no bad blood between them and adding that they were still "very good friends."
Elvis Presley's daughter regretted marrying Nicolas Cage
Lisa Marie Presley was still engaged to John Oszajca when, in 2000, she met Nicolas Cage at a party, per People. Meanwhile, the actor was still legally married to Patricia Arquette, but as he told Barbara Walters in 2003, he was instantly smitten. They eventually began dating and tied the knot in Hawaii in August 2002, per CNN, but divorced just four months later. As Presley explained in a statement, it was simply a bad decision. "I'm sad about this, but we shouldn't have been married in the first place," she said, concluding, "It was a big mistake."
It wasn't that they didn't care for each other — rather, their personalities were too strong, and they didn't mesh. As Cage told Walters, neither one of them liked to compromise and so, "We got into this unfortunate pattern of breaking up [and] getting back together again." Presley agreed. Speaking with Rolling Stone in 2003, she said (via the New York Post), "We're both so dramatic and dynamic that when it was good, it was unbelievably good, and when it was bad, it was just a f***ing bloody nightmare for everybody."
In the end, she knew the right thing to do was split up. As Presley told ABC News, Cage tried to get her back after he filed for divorce, but she knew better. "You can't have a temper tantrum and then call me four days later and expect, you know, everything to be fine again," she mused, adding, "We were both like two 12-year-olds in a sandbox, basically."
Lisa Marie Presley's dramatic divorce from Michael Lockwood
Lisa Marie Presley's longest relationship to date was with musician Michael Lockwood. The pair married in 2006 and had twin daughters, Harper Vivienne Ann and Finley Aaron Love, in 2008. After a decade of marriage, she filed for divorce in June 2016, and things got messy as they fought over money and custody. In February 2017, for example, their daughters were placed in protective care as Beverly Hills Police Sergeant Max Subin confirmed, per Us Weekly, that Lockwood was being investigated over what he called "alleged child abuse involving the Presley family." Lockwood fired back in court docs, alleging that his ex-wife was using their kids as "bait" and had taught them to discredit him.
Jump to January 2019, when Lockwood made allegations regarding Presley's struggle with excessive drug use, per Radar. Meanwhile, Presley accused him of stealing millions from her, while he argued that their post-nup wasn't valid because he didn't understand it before signing it. They were still fighting in 2020, with Lockwood claiming, per Us Weekly, he should have sole custody of the twins because Presley could potentially relapse following the death of her son, Benjamin Keough.
In the end, they were granted joint custody in December 2020 and became officially divorced in May 2021, five years after the drama began. Their feud wasn't over, however. In December 2021, the exes were arguing over which court documents should remain sealed, while Presley was ordered to pay over $4,600 a month in child support, per Radar.
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
If you or anyone you know is struggling 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).