Elvis was very easy to love: Priscilla Presley shares her most private memories
Forty years since the death of Elvis Presley, his former wife Priscilla has opened up like never before about the life they shared and her everlasting love for the king.
“I've never met anyone like him, ever, he was very easy to love.” Priscilla told mike Amore in an exclusive interview on Sunday Night.
“You couldn't help but fall in love with him. He just seemed to have it all he was every general’s soldier he was every son to every mother, I mean he just connected. He connected.”
The pair met at a party in Germany in 1959 after Elvis was drafted into the Army. Priscilla was the teenage stepdaughter of a US Air Force major.
She vividly remembers the first time Elvis came to her house to take her out on a date.
“Elvis came in full uniform, which my dad liked a lot, shook his hand for an hour. I am looking at my watch saying, he is taking up my time…. I told my parents that they had to let me go, or they would ruin my life.”
After a seven-year courtship, Elvis and Priscilla finally walked down the aisle in 1967. Nine months later their daughter Lisa-Marie was born. They were the most famous family on Earth.
But Priscilla said that Elvis’ fame and infidelities pushed their marriage to breaking point.
“It was the lifestyle. I couldn’t keep up, it was hard keeping up and I had a daughter,” Priscilla said.
“He wasn’t faithful, not that he had someone special, but when you’re in the entertainment business there is always that and I tried to turn my back to that, but I just didn’t want to share him. Simple as that.”
Their marriage broke apart after four years but Elvis and Priscilla remained as close as ever.
“We never lost our friendship and our care for each other,” she said.
“He would call me at night. I really valued his calls. I valued him telling me what was wrong.”
When Elvis died on August 16, 1977, Priscilla was faced with mounting debts and decided to try to help pay them by opening their family home, Graceland, to the public.
“Elvis would never have believed that his home is now a museum but would have loved it and would have been the first tour guide because that is the first thing he did, was show his place,” Priscilla said.
Follow Sunday Night on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Got a story tip? The best way to reach us is by email at sundaynight@seven.com.au
