Priscilla Presley discovered her husband’s infidelities while opening sacks of fan mail at their Graceland home. The besotted girls writing to Elvis made it perfectly clear, in stark, stabbing, black and white.
From 1969, the king had been playing his comeback residency in Las Vegas and with gigs in Sin City came renewed adoration – and plenty of parties. It was the latter he began prioritising over Priscilla and their baby daughter, Lisa Marie, born the previous year, alongside his entourage known as the Memphis Mafia, run by pal and road manager Joe Esposito.
Priscilla was opening the mail with Joe’s wife, Joan, when she realised what was going on. Sign-offs like “Babyface” told her all she needed.
“There was a lot that I really shouldn’t have been seeing because it was hurtful,” she admits. “Vegas for us, as women who had children, just wasn’t a place to bring the kids. So we would stay home and wait for them to come back after the weekend. We were trying to keep a family together. The times in Las Vegas were the most difficult times. It was play time for the guys. And I tried my best.”
She explains: “I was trying to tend to two masters – my daughter and my husband. So I think those were the difficult times because that’s when really everything started with us as a family breaking up. Vegas ruined the marriages.”
Priscilla, now 78, adds: “I had to be with my child and I didn’t want to be separated from Elvis either. So I had a nanny and I would bring her to Vegas when he was performing there, but it was really difficult because Lisa being so young, I had to get up early, she would cry and he had to sleep because he was performing. It made it difficult to have a family. So it was times that he came home that were really the best times.”
She reflected upon those years during An Evening With Priscilla Presley at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas, ahead of the UK release of a biopic, Priscilla, written, produced and directed by Sofia Coppola It is based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir, Elvis And Me. But for a woman long-overshadowed by her legendary late husband, the moment in the spotlight is a unique one.
“Of course I was nervous about it, even though Sofia is a great director,” she admits. "She told me not to worry, but I was because it is your life. But I fell in love with her, let her do her thing and I trusted her. I loved the end result.”
Australian actress Cailee Spaeny’s depiction of Priscilla, opposite Jacob Elordi as Elvis, has already earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Priscilla was touched by the performance and stunned by “seeing me” on screen. She added: “She was unbelievable. She got me down to a tee. I did say to her, ‘I want you to be sensitive to him please’. And she did.”
This plea for sensitivity towards Elvis is difficult to comprehend from an ex-wife speaking about his infidelities. But although heartbroken, later divorcing him in 1973, she was always under his spell. Priscilla was just 14 when she first met Elvis at a house party in Germany, during his time in the army in 1959. The teen, whose stepfather was stationed with the Air Force, was instantly besotted – as was Elvis, ten years her senior. They began a six-month “non-sexual” romance.
“I have asked many times, why me?” Priscilla ponders. “It was because I was the listener, and he poured his heart out to me. His mother had just died and he trusted me.” Elvis continued to pursue her after leaving Germany in 1960. They married in Vegas in 1967 when she was 21, and he 32. Lisa Marie arrived the following year, but what should have been a close, domestic time, was superseded by Elvis’s big comeback.
He was dogged by nerves following the stalling of his earlier career, and addictions to drink and prescription drugs had taken over. He could not be the husband and father Priscilla needed. “He cared about losing his fans,” she explains. “Every show in Vegas, he was so nervous. He was like ‘how was I?’
“To see him that nervous and insecure is hard to believe.” Despite everything he put her through, she recalls the times when they could be a family with incredible fondness.
She recalls: “I think being with him alone actually was actually my favourite time, because it was so much more intimate. He would rely on me for so many things, he would share with me what he would never share with anyone. Those were the most cherished moments. He was just an amazing father. He was a great husband… sometimes. And just sharing time with him and seeing how really a beautiful person he was, he was such a giving man. He had the best laugh. If he laughed, you cannot help but laugh.”
Even after their separation, the soulmates continued an “emotional” marriage. “At two o’clock in the morning the doorbell would ring and it was him,” she recalls. “Elvis did what Elvis wanted to do. And then about five o’clock, he’d leave and I’d get up at seven to take Lisa Marie to school. I guess I was always the listener.”
Priscilla still finds a closeness with him in Graceland, where he died from a heart attack in 1977 aged 42.
“You feel his soul there. You really do,” she says. “When I walk in, it’s like, wow. It’s like the memories are there and all, but I do feel his spirit there.” Looking emotional, she adds: “Graceland is my heart. I love Graceland. I love going. It’s like I never left. I get memories like you can’t believe. So Graceland is very special.”
* Priscilla comes to UK cinemas from Tuesday.