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Lisa Marie Presley, only child of Elvis, dies at 54 after hospitalization

Daughter of legendary singer attended Golden Globes earlier this week to celebrate Austin Butler's award for playing her father
Lisa Marie Presley
Posted at 8:47 PM, Jan 12, 2023
and last updated 2023-01-12 23:54:23-05

LOS ANGELES — Lisa Marie Presley — the only child of Elvis Presley — died Thursday after being hospitalized earlier that day, her mother said in a statement. The singer was 54.

"It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us," Priscilla Presley said in a statement. "She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known."

The announcement came just hours after Priscilla Presley had confirmed that Lisa Marie Presley was rushed to the hospital earlier Thursday.

Los Angeles County paramedics were dispatched to a Calabasas home at 10:37 a.m. following a report of a woman in full cardiac arrest, according to Craig Little, a spokesperson for the county's fire department. Property records indicate Presley was a resident at that address.

"My beloved daughter Lisa Marie was rushed to the hospital. She is now receiving the best care," Priscilla Presley said. "Please keep her and our family in your prayers. We feel the prayers from around the world, and ask for privacy during this time."

Black and white photo of Lisa Marie Presley as baby with her mother Priscilla and father Elvis, Feb. 5, 1968
Lisa Marie Presley poses for her first picture in the lap of her mother, Priscilla, on Feb. 5, 1968, with her father, Elvis Presley.

Paramedics arrived about six minutes later, Little said. A subsequent statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said paramedics performed CPR and "determined the patient had signs of life" before taking her to the hospital immediately.

The city of Calabasas is nestled between the foothills of the Santa Monica and the Santa Susanna Mountains, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

News of Presley's hospitalization was first reported by TMZ and later confirmed by People magazine.

Presley, 54, attended the Golden Globes on Tuesday, on hand to celebrate Austin Butler's award for playing her father in "Elvis." She called his performance "mind-blowing" during a red carpet interview with "Entertainment Tonight."

"I really didn't know what to do with myself after I saw it," she told ET of Baz Luhrmann's movie. "I had to take, like, five days to process it because it was so incredible and so spot on and just so authentic that, yeah, I can't even describe what it meant."

Lisa Marie Presley at 'Mad Max: Fury Road' premiere in 2014
Lisa Marie Presley arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Mad Max: Fury Road" at the TCL Chinese Theatre on May 7, 2015.

Just days before that, she was in Memphis, Tennessee, at Graceland — the mansion where Elvis lived — to celebrate her father's birth anniversary on Jan. 8.

Presley recently penned an essay published in People about "the horrific reality" of her grief following her son Benjamin Keough's death by suicide in 2020.

"I've dealt with death, grief and loss since the age of 9 years old. I've had more than anyone's fair share of it in my lifetime and somehow, I've made it this far," she wrote in August.

Presley lived with her mother, an actor known for "Dallas" and the "Naked Gun" movies, in California after her parents split up in 1973. She recalled early memories of her dad during her visits to Graceland, riding golf carts through the neighborhood and seeing his daily entrances down the stairs.

Elvis Presley and wife Priscilla Presley pose with baby daughter Lisa Marie Presley, Feb. 5, 1968
Elvis Presley poses with wife Priscilla and daughter Lisa Marie in a room at a Memphis, Tenn., hospital on Feb. 5, 1968.

"He was always fully, fully geared up. You'd never see him in his pajamas coming down the steps, ever," she told The Associated Press in 2012. "You'd never see him in anything but 'ready to be seen' attire."

Elvis Presley died in August 1977, when he was just 42, and she 9 years old. Lisa Marie was staying at Graceland at the time and would recall him kissing her goodnight hours before he would collapse and never recover. When she next saw him, the following day, he was lying face down in the bathroom.

"I just had a feeling," she told Rolling Stone in 2003. "He wasn't doing well. All I know is I had it (a feeling), and it happened. I was obsessed with death at a very early age."

She would later make headlines of her own. Struggles with drugs and some very public marriages. Her four husbands included Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage.

Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley at MTV Video Music Awards in 1994
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley-Jackson acknowledge applause from the audience after coming out onstage to open the 11th annual MTV Video Music Awards at New York's Radio City Music Hall, Sept. 8, 1994.

Jackson and Presley were married in the Dominican Republic in 1994, but the marriage ended two years later and was defined by numerous awkward public appearances, including an unexpected kiss from Jackson during the MTV Video Music Awards and a joint interview with Diane Sawyer when she defended her husband against allegations he had sexually abused a minor. Her other celebrity marriage was even shorter: Cage filed for divorce after four months of marriage in 2002.

"I had to sort of run into many walls and trees," she told the AP in 2012. "But now I can also look back at it and tell you all the stuff that was going on around me and all the different people around me and all the awww — and it was not a good situation anyway. That wasn't helping. Either way, it was a growing process. It was just in a different way. It was just out in front of everybody all the time. Because it's all documented of course."