Riley Keough is sharing her emotional journey as she takes on the task of completing her late mother Lisa Marie Presley's memoir.
“It’s just something I felt that I needed to do for her and help her complete that project,” Keough, 34, told Variety at the Emmy Awards on Monday, January 15. “It’s very bittersweet and I am happy to do that for her. I feel honored to be able to help.”
After Lisa Marie's passing in January 2023 at the age of 54, she had been working on her book for over three years. Now, one year later, her oldest child is finishing the memoir, embracing the responsibility of continuing the Presley legacy.
“It’s extremely emotional and also very therapeutic,” Keough continued. “It makes me feel very close to her. So it’s kind of, again, bittersweet and difficult, but also really special.”
The much-anticipated memoir is set to be published on October 15. Lisa Marie had previously asked her daughter to assist with the book, and after her mother's death, Keough began listening to tapes Lisa Marie had recorded.
“Few people had the opportunity to know who my mom really was, other than being Elvis’s daughter,” she said in a statement to the Associated Press on January 11. “I was lucky to have had that opportunity and working on preparing her autobiography for publication has been a privilege, albeit a bittersweet one. I’m so excited to share my mom now, at her most vulnerable and most honest, and in doing so, I do hope that readers come to love my mom as much as I did.”
Lisa Marie passed away after suffering a heart attack at her home in Calabasas, California. The autopsy report, obtained by Us Weekly in July 2023, revealed that her death was caused by a small bowel obstruction. She is survived by her mother, Priscilla, 78, Riley, whom she shared with ex-husband Danny Keough, and twin daughters Finley and Harper, 15, whom she welcomed with ex-husband Michael Lockwood.
After Lisa Marie's death, Riley became the sole trustee of her mother’s estate. Priscilla contested the will, which gave her granddaughter control over the estate. The settlement included stipulations where Riley’s younger half-sisters were named sub-trustees, and Priscilla was given a $1 million lump sum payment.
On the one-year anniversary of Lisa Marie's death on January 12, Riley shared a throwback Instagram photo of herself as a child sitting next to Lisa Marie, captioning it with a heartfelt “❤️.”