Lisa Marie Presley claimed she was molested by Priscilla’s boyfriend at age 10 in new memoir
Lisa Marie Presley claims she was molested by mother Priscilla Presley’s ex-boyfriend, actor Mike Edwards, in her new memoir.
After the death of her dad, Elvis Presley, in 1977, Lisa Marie moved full-time to Los Angeles to live with her mom, whom she had a tumultuous relationship with throughout her life.
She alleged in “From Here to the Great Unknown,” out now, that while she was living there, Edwards — who appeared in the 1981 movie “Mommie Dearest” as Joan Crawford’s lover — came into her room in the middle of the night and ran his finger up her leg.
“He said he was going to teach me what was going to happen when I got older,” Lisa Marie, who was 10 at the time, wrote in her tome. “He was putting his hand on my chest and saying a man’s going to touch here, there, he put his hand between my legs, and he said they’re going to touch you here. I think he gently kissed me and then left that night.”
She allegedly told her mom the next day, recalling in the book how Priscilla “flew into her room and slammed the door. Eventually she called me in and said that Edwards wanted to apologize.”
“Edwards was sitting on their bed looking very sullen and sulky … he said ‘I’m so sorry, but in Europe that’s how they teach the kids so that’s what I was doing.'”
She claimed in the book, however, that the alleged abuse didn’t end there.
“Eventually it became that he would touch me and spank me, telling me not to look [at him],” Lisa Marie wrote. “I assume he was jerking off. He wouldn’t be mad at me — he did it very calmly, just sitting in a chair, whacking my ass. My butt would be black, blue, orange, green.”
After she showed Priscilla the bruises, Lisa Marie claimed her mother said, “Well, what did you do to cause that?”
When reached for comment, Edwards denied the allegations, telling Page Six, “I’m in shock, that’s untrue…I was like a father to Lisa Marie.” He claimed no one called him from the book’s publishing company for comment and alleged, “I don’t think Lisa was that stable during that period of time.”
In another statement to Page Six, Edwards said: “These claims are absolutely untrue. I never molested Lisa Marie and am shocked at the suggestion that I did. I was encouraged to embellish a harmless anecdote about Lisa Marie in my memoir from the 1980s and now regret that I did. I understand that these stories sell books, but the notion that I molested Lisa Marie is just a fabrication.’’
Edwards’ daughter, Caroline Van Zandt, also addressed the allegations.
“Lisa Marie and I were close friends throughout my father’s relationship with Priscilla. We were confidants, like sisters, sharing all our secrets and complaining about our parents as typical teenagers do,” she shared in a statement to Page Six.
“I have kept many notes and letters from Lisa Marie during those years and she never stated or insinuated that my dad touched her inappropriately. When she told me about my dad walking into her room, we then addressed and resolved the issue as a family.”
She continued, “Those who know Priscilla and her fierce protectiveness of her family understand she never would have tolerated any sort of behavior like that. I’m disappointed and sad that these claims are being made.’’
In his 1988 book, “Elvis, Priscilla and Me,” Edwards wrote how he “was craving Lisa sexually” — writing, “Where Priscilla and I had once been inseparable, it was now Lisa and I who were together almost every day. Soon I found I was looking at my watch, waiting for Lisa’s school to let out, just as Elvis had once eagerly awaited Priscilla’s return to Graceland from school each day.”
Lisa Marie wrote that when Priscilla did confront Edwards, he would say, “I was drunk” or “She was flirting with me.”
In his book, Edwards said, “Once, when Priscilla and I were sitting at the dinner table and Lisa was sitting between us, Lisa got up to get something from the refrigerator and her bare knee accidentally brushed against my hand. It sent waves of desire through me. I looked at Priscilla and thought, Can’t you see what’s happening — I’ve fallen in love with your daughter.”
Lisa Marie claimed the abuse went on for a few years. Edwards was with Priscilla for seven years, from 1977 until 1984, and their relationship was full of violence, according to the book.
Lisa Marie died in January 2023, leaving behind hours of tapes that her daughter Riley Keough, an actress who starred in “Daisy Jones & The Six,” turned into a biography.
The Post has reached out to Priscilla for comment.
