Priscilla Presley: ‘Being beside Elvis was a real life lesson’

The event takes place every year, but the setting and the main figures change. This time it was July 30 and the temperature invited people to take out a fan, although it could do little more than stir the air of the Turkish-bath atmosphere Mallorca has become this summer. The bar at the Hilton Mallorca Galatzó hotel, in a privileged area of Calvià, was closed to the public, who frequently peered through the windows at the comings and goings of photography and video crews moving across the lobby. Inside the bar, accompanied by several advisers from her team, was Priscilla Presley (New York, 81), wife of the King of Rock and Roll first and ex-wife later, although they never really separated completely. A slim woman with a soft voice and very fair skin that contrasts with her red hair, the same color as the dress she will wear at the party later. She stands immediately to greet EL PAÍS. She had been in Mallorca in the 1960s, but says she doesn’t remember it like it is today: “I was very young,” she says, almost in a whisper.It is 4.00 p.m. Five hours remain before Priscilla Presley, formerly Beaulieu, becomes the main attraction at the party that real estate businessman Marcel Remus (Hamm, Germany, 39) organizes each summer at a different island hotel, attended by industry figures and German socialites, and extensively covered by that country’s celebrity press. In his drive to extend his personal brand (he even has a waffle batter mix bearing his name) the party Remus — the businessman-now-celebrity who mainly sells ultra-luxury properties on the islands — throws is one of the most talked-about summer events in the Balearics and brings together a wide range of well-known personalities. Past attendees have ranged from Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank, at last year’s edition, to singer Janet Jackson and actress-writer Joan Collins, at earlier parties. This year, alongside Priscilla, the spotlight is shared by Mischa Barton, known for playing Marissa Cooper on the teen series The O.C., and Mónica Cruz, a dancer and sister of Penélope Cruz.Back at the bar, the clock is ticking. They allow 10 minutes for the interview, in which Priscilla does not answer questions about the death of her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley — the only child she had during her marriage to Elvis — who died in January 2023 from an intestinal obstruction following stomach surgery. Three years earlier the family had already faced the death of Benjamin Keough, one of Lisa Marie’s four children, who took his own life at 27, an episode his mother admitted she had never overcome. The matriarch had already recounted all the details in the memoirs she published in September of last year, and they will presumably continue in the new edition she is preparing. “I’m writing another book right now, the continuation of my memoirs, about the good and the bad,” she confirms.Elvis is the axis around which Priscilla revolves. In the past four years, the life of the King and, by extension, hers, have been brought to the screen in film. Austin Butler portrayed the legendary musician in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 feature, and director Sofia Coppola later adapted their romantic relationship for the big screen, from Priscilla’s point of view. “I felt very comfortable with Sofia. I wish it was longer. You know, we were given just so much time. I wish that we had even longer to talk. But, I was okay with it,” she says about the film. For the actress and businesswoman it is “difficult” to see herself on screen. It is also hard to talk in interviews, “living life all over again.” “The memories that come up and the questions that are asked, it kind of releases a lot that one holds in,” she admits.For Priscilla, being with Elvis shaped her entire life: “It was a great lesson in life being with someone so famous and how he handled it, and what it did to him as far as becoming so famous and so popular... it was a lesson in life for sure for me.” The memory of the singer, who died in August 1977 at 42, remains vivid for Priscilla. She describes him as a man with a “very big heart,” very generous with his people and his family, especially his mother, whose death “took a little bit from him.” At this point she recalls a well-known anecdote she believes shows how the artist loved “giving and helping people.” The episode happened at a Memphis dealership, where Elvis had gone with the intention of buying a car. An elderly woman there was looking at some of the vehicles and stepped aside when she saw the singer, hardly believing her eyes. “And he looked over at her, and she’s looking at the car. And he went over to her, and he said, ‘You like this car?’ And she said ‘Oh, this car is beautiful.’ And he goes, ‘Really?’ And he had the guy come over with the keys. And he took her hand, put the keys in her hand, and said, ‘This is yours.’ And he bought it for her. That’s how giving he was. He never met her before,” Priscilla recounts.The couple met in Germany in 1959, while he was doing his military service and she was living with her parents, who were stationed there because her stepfather was an officer in the U.S. Army. At the time, she was 14 years old, and Elvis — who was already a music star — was 10 years her senior. They married in Las Vegas in 1967 but divorced in 1973, though they maintained a good relationship until the singer’s death; he never remarried. At just 34 years old, and following the death of Elvis’s father — which occurred only two years after the artist’s own death — Priscilla took charge of managing the star’s legacy on behalf of her daughter, Lisa Marie. An artist who left behind more than 700 songs and 31 films, he is one of the music stars who has continued to generate the highest royalties after his death. “It means a lot to me. It means a lot. You know, I want people who know what a great man he was,” she says.In 1982 Priscilla turned Graceland, the famous mansion the singer had given to his parents, into a must-see pilgrimage site for fans, and it remains year after year the second most-visited place in the United States, after the White House. The businesswoman defends her role in preserving the artist’s legacy: “I think it’s important that I have a role in his life because, basically, no one knew him like I did.” For that reason, and despite the articles, films, documentaries, and reports, Priscilla believes there is still much that has not been told about Elvis: “Yeah, a lot. He was something else.” Secrets, perhaps? She laughs. “Not everything has been told in the films,” she says.Priscilla says that, in addition to being immersed in the second part of her memoirs, she continues to devote a great deal of time to animal rescue work, especially rescuing older animals in shelters. The encounter ends a little before the scheduled time so she can rest before becoming the focus of the roughly 600 guests who will attend Remus’s party and who are hoping to see her up close, or take a photo with her. She poses with the businessman on the red carpet and, later, spends the night in a reserved area of the party alongside Cruz and Barton. Meanwhile, magnate Remus is already thinking about his guest list for next year’s party.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition