Thank you so much for this! You have given me so much insight to this book without having to read it. What a sad sad story. I am a 77 year old avid Elvis fan....thanks again for a job well done!
Ohh my... What a sad life. I hope she is in a beautiful place right now! Thank you for sharing this with us!🩶 I wish you lots of happiness in your life!☀️
IMO what might be missing are her fights against Scientology. 2012ish when she realized it was all a lie... and learned that her mother had been stealing millions from her. "Each loss pushes you down further"- lmp, on Larry king. Losing her dad was traumatic... but having a mother who despised her, and publicly denigrated her... is what made those other things insurmountable
The book completely let Scientology off the hook which is shocking. I wish Lisa Marie had written the book herself, left nothing out and didn't allow her daughter to finish it. It turned out to be a money grab of mishmash memories and leaving us wanting so much more that will never be written. I was so disappointed.
@@debra2700uh she died before she could and Riley doesn’t care about money. She didn’t do it as a money grab. She put in what was last on the tapes and filled in the gaps. Not talking about Scientology’s more controversial aspects does not mean it’s a money grab. Riley loved her mother and kept a promise to finish it. This is such a despicable thing to say.
@@jacquelinemilom4164 Riley doesn't care about money? Are you being serious right now? Of course she cares about money and Scientology is what put her beloved brother Ben in the ground. He said Scientology messes kids up and putting a bullet in his head didn't prove him wrong. You defending Scientology in any way while claiming to be a fan is the despicable thing here.
It’s the perfect book to have on the coffee table. It’s critical to talk about the ugly side of life because it’s a release. That’s the release most addicts need. A need to talk without judgment, but love. It’s sad that after Elvis’s death, the one person who should have been the strength and unconditional love source, FAILED her. So many adults failed her. I am so glad Lisa let the truth out. May she now be resting in peace with her two most loved men. ❤️🕊️❤️
Riley stated her mom asked her to do this book while she was doing it all long. She felt she couldn’t organize it or put it together correctly, and so asked Riley to help her way before her death and Riley agreed. But she didn’t realize her mom would die quite so soon. So, no it wasn’t prepared prematurely for marketing. I think Riley from her interviews, she felt it would help her own sense of grief. Her brothers death dropped her to her knees and she felt this would help her with the closure of her mom’s suffering and henceforth her death. She did it from love, pure and simple love. She was so close to,her mom. She’s tying to deal with it all herself. 😢
I really enjoyed your take on this book and hearing how relatable it is to you. Elvis said that to have a happy life, you had to have something to do, something to look forward to and someone to love. Lisa's philosophy sounds very similar. I also respect Riley for carrying on Lisa's wishes to complete her story. IMO, Priscilla is responsible for much of the pain experienced by Elvis and Lisa Marie. She and the colonel were like poison to Elvis. Thank you for this video and your profound comments.❤❤❤
Thank you for this review. As an Elvis fan since 1956 this book was a validation of some things we knew but couldn't prove. Lisa's mother Priscilla has controlled the Elvis narrative writing her for book in 1985 as his xwife. She created a victim like fairytale that that is the world's go to for Elvis information. When she left Elvis for her married karate expert, the second affair while married to Elvis, and took 4 year old Lisa, Elvis fans hated her. So she writes the book as a victim of pedo type character that abused her. Yes Elvis was not faithful but, never was violent or abusive. In fact as she tried to establish fame for herself in Hollywood and drained all the money she could from him up to his death in 1977 he never said one mean word about her in public, he gave her everything she wanted in the divorce even though she public ally humiliated him. He held her hand in divorce court. She is more involved in Lisq&s behavior than you say. Putting a child in the cult of Scientology art age 11 to be indoctrinated and audited ruined Lisa reality, as Ben also said that Scientology wrecked his brain, also left out of the book. Priscilla is still in the cult in fact when Lisa died, Priscilla sued Riley to get Graceland for her and her son Navorone, Scientology helped mediate a settlement. I know you know very little about Priscilla, but she didn't want Lisa Elvis family says this. Thanks
Yes. Elvis was a hobby of mine. Grew up following the family and girlfriends and band members. Priscilla is a false person who snagged Elvis with a once pretty face. Oh how bitter and manipulative she is. Priss with Elvis always seemed to be putting on a show, as if she wanted the stardom and was angry that Elvis did not give her top billing. She hated the MM and wanted Elvis to go total Hollywood couple. Elvis hated the Hollywood party crowd. We can see why. They are totally perverted.
The book was well underway before Lisa died. Contract signed far enough prior, that Lockwood took Lisa back to divorce court to sue for part of that $4mil contract.
The book was underway years before her death or the Elvis movie, as her husband wanted monies from the book deal during their divorce. I feel that the book is missing a couple of chapters - why and how she left scientology, Lisa had spoken in interviews that there was a whole move to control her - was this connected to scientology or EPE, her relationship with her mother at the end, her feelings about the Elvis movie. It did feel like either a lot was edited out, or purposefully left out. Hats off to Riley for this, though, a tremendous undertaking of love for her mother.
The audio was so raw and gut wrenching because her voice is heard. It’s not a book 📕 one can put down and forget about it. I had dreams that night. It’s sad to see that she tried so hard to find her own identity being Elvis’s daughter. He was and is such an icon, it was so hard to live under that fame. I’m happy they had unconditional love for each other, but when he died, it changed her life and feeling of safety forever. It’s truly heartbreaking, especially the death of her beloved son. She was devastated after that. I could only listen to it once, it’s so raw. The abuse was written about in his book in 1988. So her actually knowing about it by age 10, made me want to puke. Especially since her mom knew and did NOTHING. May she and Elvis rest in peace. Danny and she were really a type of soulmate who although divorced remained close until he performed cpr on her the day she died. They had 2 beautiful children together and of course shared the grief of their sons death. Thanks for reviewing this. It is a real heartbreaker and is to be revered and respected as her last words from her sudden death. 😢😢💔❤️
Sweety you have a lot of stuff wrong, prissy was playing away when she was still married to Elvis, prissy had had loads of lovers, Elvis wasn't alive when the tours started, so do some research, ive been an Elvis fan for 65 years, prissy was not a grieving widow, just an ex.
Omg thank you so much. I've been waiting to read this. I can't wait to get it. I'm very familiar with the Presley family and so I knew it was a tough read, but it's relatable to me as well.
I know people have their preconceptions when it comes to Michael Jackson, but let's be a bit fair to him here. I don't think it's weird for a 35 yo guy to want kids with his wife when they get married. In fact, it's a quite natural desire. According to the book when MJ confessed his love to Lisa and that he wanted to marry her he also added that he wanted children with her. So that's not something that Lisa was hoodwinked about when she said yes. (Unlike Lisa hoodwinking Danny into fatherhood without his consent. I guess women have some leverage there...) As for him having ulterior motives, wanting Elvis's genes, wanting to dump Lisa after having kids - that was a fear by Lisa (after their marriage was already on the rocks), not a fact. And that assumption probably was put in Lisa's ears by her mother, Priscilla who desperately wanted to break them up. (BTW, she also tried to break up Lisa with Danny as you can read in the book.) She played on her daughter's insecurities about not being lovable for herself to put a wedge between Lisa and Michael. This part is missing from the book but it's quite obvious from interviews over the years. Even yesterday Riley alluded to it in an interview that her grandmother played a role in planting paranoia in Lisa's head (and there were such people on MJ's end as well): "MOSLEY: There's an entire chapter devoted to Michael, and she makes clear that she loved Michael and that their romance was real. Did she ever talk about, though, the possibility that MJ could also be using her or the perception and how she felt about the perception that he might be using this as a publicity stunt? - because, like, he was in the midst of this child sex abuse - these allegations at the time as well. KEOUGH: I think that my answer to that is that their love was very genuine. And they were in love, and they were in a real relationship and slept in bed together and were very normal. But I think that when you're that famous, there's a lot of people around, and I think both camps had people in their ears about each other. And, you know, my mom started to perceive that maybe he was on drugs, and he started to maybe get the idea that she was on to him maybe being on drugs. And then I think there was paranoia. I think my grandmother was apprehensive about the marriage and brought that idea up to my mom. And I think it just kind of exploded." www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-5148873 Well, Lisa Marie said it herself in 2014: "With MJ [Michael Jackson], unfortunately, too much happened, too much got between us. There was a very deep strong love there; intense. But people got in the way, on my end and his end. We had so many people telling us what to do and intercepting and speaking on behalf of the other. Had it been just he and I, towards the end, I don’t think we would have divorced.” www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/what-i-know-about-men-20140311-34jxp.html And MJ had his own dysfunctional upbringing and own insecurities about not being lovable for himself. I can imagine his insecurities were massively triggered when he felt Lisa didn't want kids with him while she had kids with a guy who didn't really want kids. (BTW, my opinion about that is that she was more comfortable with having Danny's kids and not MJ's is because she knew if they divorced Danny wouldn't fight for custody, while MJ absolutely would. She said as much in older interviews: "When I thought of having kids with him all I could see a big custody battle." It's not like she and Danny had a more stable marriage or anything. She says in the book herself she didn't expect their marriage to last. It's simply that she knew that Danny wouldn't fight for custody IMO. Michael might have been controlling, like Lisa said in the book, but so was she.) As for Lisa being "smart" for not giving MJ kids. I'm not sure about that. Did she have a happier life without him? I don't see that. When Lisa said in the book her time with MJ was the happiest I wasn't surprised because it's always been evident for me. Lisa is an open book. All her feelings were always on her face. When she was with MJ and before their marriage broke down in the second half of 1995 she always had this big, radiant 1000 Watt smile on her face I've never seen during any other part of her life. Go check out pictures of her in 1994-first half of 1995. And it's not like she could even avoid a big custody battle: eventually she did have a VERY nasty one with her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood...
Your post was excellent but I always thought that Lisa married Michael so that she could save him in a way that she couldn't save her father when she was nine years old but she could see and she said that men like Michael and her father had the money and the power to built their own Ivory Towers and if you didn't go along with their demands, you were out.. She wanted to take care of Michael but when you're unsure that you want a baby with a husband who is constantly talking about it and your husband threatens you with, "If you won't give me a baby, Debbie will," that wasn't a marriage that stood a chance. I don't think it was as much the issue that Michael would get full custody because there was no way he would but that he was making demands of her that scared her and he constantly was disappearing on her. She said that at the MTV awards when he grabbed her and kissed her onstage, she hadn't seen or heard from him for three weeks and had no idea where he was. Elvis said that you can be in love with someone and not be right for them and it was true of him and Priscilla and it was true of Lisa and Michael.
@debra2700 You are mixing up the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards (kiss) and the 1995 (before which MJ disappeared). Once again, there's a context to that disappearance (which was in 1995), namely that it happened after Lisa went to some Hawaii Scientology event with Danny (allegedly Danny being there was arranged by Priscilla, Lisa didn't even know in advance). MJ didn't like that and disappeared on her. Lisa herself talked about that on Oprah 2010 (not the Priscilla part, that's a rumor but I wouldn't be surprised): "While I was with Michael I was still trying to process what I had done. I never could feel good about it. I felt like, how could I have done that to somebody and I have these two little ones. Danny was still very much part of my life. Michael didn’t quite know what to do with that sometimes. That made him uncomfortable and I understood that. Michael would wonder, “Why are you in Hawaii with Danny?” I’d take a vacation and Danny would go. Michael would get upset and “Where are you?” and he would disappear for a couple of weeks and I couldn’t find him. Things would make him uncomfortable and when I would do things that would make Michael uncomfortable, if he got uncomfortable or felt vulnerable, he would ice you out as a mechanism. He would push you away and ice you. It was like a shark sometimes in that way, he could just like that, if you’d done him wrong or whatever, you were out. We had some moments like that. But I have to say in retrospect. that he honestly tried so hard and went through so much with me, and I know now when I look back at it, he’s never done that with any other female or anyone as much as we went through. We hit rough waters, we would fight, we would argue, three day arguments sometimes, taking a break to eat and sleep. I have to say that I really admire that he really gave it a good shot, you know, I didn’t appreicate it then and I wish I did." It's after this when you see Lisa at the 1995 MTV Awards in the audience visibly grumpy because MJ had disappeared on her during the previous weeks. But it was a "tit for tat", both made mistakes (obviously neither of them handling their conflicts very well). I liked the book but there are some contexts that are missing from it. I guess because Lisa couldn’t finish it.
@@jacksonaktak You're correct, I was thinking of Lisa in '94 feeling that Michael had blindsided her with that kiss because she begged him not to even make her go out there and it was in '95 that she said he had disappeared for three weeks. Thank you for that correction. Lisa said that after Michael, Danny wouldn't take her back and she also said that she felt bad about leaving Danny so I feel that all roads always led back to Danny. Had he taken her back, there would have been no Nick Cage and that piece of excrement, Michael Lockwood because all Lisa wanted was a fresh start at love and more children. Danny asked for nothing in the divorce and he just seemed to not know what to do but hang around in the fringes of Lisa's life since his heart couldn't handle taking the risk of taking her back after she left him for someone else. Lisa said she was never happier than she was with Michael but she intertwined Michael with her father, the larger-than-life mega star with whom she could substitute Neverland for Graceland until she realized that she couldn't save Michael from himself anymore than she could save her father from himself. She said both men had the power and money to build Ivory Towers and if you didn't agree with them, you were out. I truly feel that Lisa never loved Michael in a healthy way. I don't know if Danny hanging around was a good thing or a bad thing but Lisa was so damaged and so complicated that I don't see how she even managed to pull off the relatively calm, sane decade that Riley talks about.
@@debra2700 I feel sometimes people are over-romanticizing Danny because they wish Lisa's big love was a "normal" man (unlike MJ, I guess), but after reading the book I don't find the Danny relationship very charming at all. I actually assumed more of it before reading the book and now the book put it into a perspective for me. In documentaries about Lisa, like Driven in 2003 they make the Danny marriage out to be some wholesome thing, where two young people meet, fall in love, get married and have kids consensually because they plan to live happily ever after. And MJ came and ruined all of that bliss for his own selfish reasons, of course, is the narrative. (That documentary is made by and is full of the people who I believe Lisa refers to in her book when she says: "A lot of people were invested in having me quiet and managable.") Well, it turns out it wasn't quite like that. Danny literally had to be tricked into the marriage and into being a father. Riley said he had no intention ever to get married and have kids. Sure enough, once Lisa got pregnant he did what he had to do, but would he have married Lisa if she hadn't got pregnant? Trapping a man into marriage/fatherhood: how is THAT healthy? How is that romantic? And I feel more than anything Danny was a mean to an end for Lisa, ie. she wanted to become a mother and wanted a dad for her kids who wouldn't fight for custody no matter what happened between them. But Lisa never planned that marriage for long. She said it herself in the book: "When I had Riley, I set my mind solely on having a child and raising a child. Was my goal for her to have suitable parents who were stable, and were Danny and I going to stay married forever? No f***ing way. Neither of us had that in our minds." As for her supposedly wanting to get back with Danny after her marriage to MJ. In context, it seems like it was again about the guilt for breaking up her family when he had left Danny, maybe wanting some normal family surrounding for her kids with their father, and not necessarily out of some huge romantic love. I am also not sure that I buy that Danny turned her down to not to risk the hurt again. Hurt suggests you are still in love. If you are still in love but don't trust the other person it is of course legit to turn them down, but would you then still hang around that other person and watch her date and marry other men? How would that be less hurtful in case you are still in love? I know I wouldn't. So I'm not quite sure I'm buying this explanation as to why they never got back together. Maybe Danny just saw that Lisa's heart is not really in it - or again, like the first time, not for the right reasons. Lisa once described their relationship more like a brother-sister type of relationship and I believe that's what it was. Also, I believe somethimes you need to read between the lines, not just the lines. In Chapter 6 Riley indeed says that the ten years after the divorce from MJ was their happiest time. But that's Riley saying it, not Lisa and that's Riley's perspective. I can see it a very happy time from Riley's perspective: being with her loving mother and Ben, growing up, Danny hanging around, which for Riley was certainly great, everyone being there who Riley loved. However was it really for Lisa? There is mention of her starting to develop an alcohol problem. There is mention of her often lying on the floor alone in her room, listening to Elvis records and crying. So I am not really sure it WAS her happiest time, it doesn't seem to be the case to me (and she says her happiest time was with MJ), but it was certainly Riley's.
@@jacksonaktak It is so nice to have someone with your depth and quality respond. I do agree on so many things, that how could it be easier for Danny to watch Lisa marry other men than to just take her back and there were so many times in the book that, even though the fonts were different for Lisa and Riley, I often thought I was hearing from Lisa but it was Riley so yes, the idyllic decade could have so much more to Riley than Lisa. I was shocked that Lisa had an abortion and I feel that was 100% the driving force into tricking Danny to have a baby. The guilt and regret seemed overwhelming for her. I'm surprised that Danny didn't wanted kids because he was a good father, as much as he could be in that situation and he's a huge comfort to Riley now. I tend to give Danny as pass because they met in Scientology and the book woefully overlooks what Scientology is how is drove these people to act the way they did. I follow Leah Remini and her outstanding efforts to out Scientologists for what they are the damage they do in people's lives and it amazes that Priscilla, knowing how much Elvis was disgusted by them and have made him burn his religious books and mocking his religious journey, put his child into Scientology but she could never stand Lisa for ruining her marriage and her life and Elvis was just a means to an end for her so I guess I should be surprised. Before this book, I thought Lisa Marie Presley was the quintessential spoiled rich kid who blew through her father's money, married and divorced multiple times, did drugs, did rehab, moved around and only made three CDs as her employment record and never finishing anything but after reading this book, I see clearly why her life was chaos. I never understood why she kept Joe Esposito in her life until the book and I never understood why she was okay with Jerry Shilling being tied at the hip to Priscilla but he was truly broken at Lisa's Memorial in a way that even her mother wasn't and I thought it funny that he said that Lisa was an excellent employee to him when she said in the book that she sucked at answering the phones and only lasted a month. I felt that Elvis, upon losing Gladys shattered him and set him on a path of destruction and I feel the same happened to Lisa but even Elvis couldn't have survived the death of a child. Had he lost Lisa, I truly feel he would have blown his brains out. I know I'm all over the place with this post but the book to me felt like making Lisa's life make sense was like trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again.
It is sad. At times overwhelming tragic. The book really illuminates the multi generational impact of addiction and its related trauma, which can be incredibly hard for outsiders and those who have not had to deal with it personally to understand. For me personally this book did what all great books should do, which is take the intimate personal experience and make it universal. Yes it was about Lisa’s life but it was about so much more than that. It was also about the very human experience of wrestling with our insecurities, having to pick ourselves up over and over again when life knocks us down, about the need for connection and the flipside of the very real damage and trauma those connections can cause. I don’t know if I could bear to read it again, but I’m very glad I did.
I was going to pass on reading this book. Being a long term Elvis fan, seeing his later life and then Lisa Marie's life play out in the tabloids as I grew from kid to adult myself, I switched off to the celebrity of it. The legacy was just Elvis and his music/movies. After sitting through your thoughts and insight into the book, I kinda feel I "owe" it to the Elvis legacy to understand how his daughter lived through his legacy.... One of the long time listened to Elvis song is "Follow that Dream" and it got me through a few heavy years myself. Thank you and be safe 👏👏👏👏👏
Interesting that she took up addiction again at age 40. Her dad passed at 42 Many kids his parents died young get hinky around that same age... wondering if they're going to surpass it RIP Lisa. And thank you for your sensitive yet straightforward review.
It was very interesting hearing your takeaway with your limited knowledge of the Elvis saga, versus people like me who know a ridiculous amount of "stuff" about Elvis's family & how we might interpret it. Thank you so much for sharing your perspective. I have the book but feel frozen, unable to read it yet.
If you want something that serves as an epilogue search for the video of Riley performing When Doves Cry. Yes, the memoir is raw and relatable no matter who you are or how you feel about Elvis or Lisa Marie. Maybe, in a few years, when Riley (and the twins) have had a chance to process their own grief we will get a proper epilogue. Your question about why now seems very astute. Not sure if we will ever get an answer
Thank you so much for your great comment about the book. I don't think I will ever get hold of this book because in our country SA, Elvis is not that popular like in other countries It's a pity though.
Disagree on the Michael Jackson part. He really wanted to be a father, so he just wanted to have kids with his wife. He was hurt because he wanted to have a family at that time. It wasn't about the Elvis genes because he quickly ended up quickly having kids with his nurse right after the divorce. And Lisa said in 2010 that she and him continued to date for several years after the divorce as well. He clearly loved her, but they definitely had a toxic relationship towards the end.
You hit the nail on the head that this book seemed to be published in a hurry for some reason. It was cheaply produced, the few photos in it were almost too grainy to see and so much was left out. Your synopsis was excellent but you made the book too maudlin because Lisa had many happy times with her father and the limo pulling up didn't mean someone had died, it meant that her father had sent someone to pick her up and it was the most joyous times of her life. This isn't in the book but one time Lisa's go cart broke and she asked Elvis to fix it and he said to her, "Daddy's a millionaire, I don't fix things, I pay people to fix things" or the time he took her to buy a puppy but told her he had errands to run first but she pestered and pestered him about the puppy. Finally, after she got on his last nerve, he said to the horror of everyone in the car, "Lisa, I told you I'm going to get you a puppy, now don't make Daddy shoot you, don't make me shoot you" this coming from a man who would shoot a toilet, TV or a car simply because it stopped working. Priscilla never wanted a baby and she used Lisa to drive Elvis crazy. The part of the book where Lisa finds Elvis sobbing because Priscilla told him Lisa couldn't stay longer at Graceland was heartbreaking and after Elvis died, Priscilla had no use for a kid and did everything but love her and parent her. That's a huge part of the book and the main reason Lisa made so many poor choices. I always felt Lisa was a screwup who did nothing but blow through money and waste her life but this book made me see her as the person she wanted us to see and how sorrowful it was so in that regard, the book is a success.
i left a comment but it was removed (?) anyway, beautiful review zakk "philosophy for a happy life someone to love something to look forward to & something to do" ~ elvis found scribbled on notes to gf's, friends & family also written in several of his personal books im sorry but i can't rewrite the indepth comment i originally wrote.. heartbroken it was removed
You brought up something I haven’t thought about, and that isn’t”why now”? Why release the book now? Was it something that the “Elvis machine” wanted? Was it something that Lisa felt the need to do after all of her struggles? I think she spent most of her living with the fact she was Elvis’ daughter. As much as she loved him, and who he was, I wonder if she ever felt burdened by that? I remember seeing interviews with her when she has her music career when people would always ask her to compare herself to her Dad. As a mother, and grandmother, I know it is sometimes hard to have your own identity. Anyway, thank you for your review of the book. I am reading it for the second time, and found it to be heartbreaking. She died not knowing how much she was loved by so many people
Enjoyed Your thoughts Riley has Stability and Knowing Her Mom wanted this done she probably did it for Her Mom In Her Moms way being so Heartbroken! Riley has seen a lot and She Will Grow even more being the Amazing Lady She has had to learn from it all because She knows what Broke Her mother’s Heart .. She will Be an AMAZING And Incredible Person from all This and shld be Proud of what She has Become and She is already on Her Way! Elvis and Lisa Marie will be Proud too with The Great Place They call Home in ‘Graceland’ with What Riley will Share with The Greatness of it all!
Priscilla never married Marco. She was no way going to give up the Presley name. Marco left her when he overheard Priscilla talking to Lisa's money manager about how they could steal Lisa's money. Marco turned to be a con man but even he couldn't stomach Priscilla stealing from her own child.
It affected me a lot while reading it because I guess you could say I had what they are now calling a "parasocial" relationship with her. Elvis was a huge part of my life because he was something I shared with my grandmother from a young age and my grandparents took me to Graceland. We followed her in the news throughout her life and I was in college when she released her first album, which I bought. I remember where I was when I first listened to it. So my heart broke for her as if I knew her. I guess I did know her even if she didn't know me. But also because Elvis meant much to me. He has been a companion and comfort to me in hard times. When Riley says Lisa would play his music drunk and sobbing... I've done that. But obviously, Elvis is her father so it's bigger and more meaningful for her. But the things I was sobbing about were big meaningful, gut wrenching things in my life and I went to Elvis music for comfort. He wasnt my father but he was playing that role for me. So I really FELT it when I read that. I could IMAGINE it all and FEEL it. It felt like a punch to the gut twisting my insides out. I've had a lot of trauma and loss that I'm grappling with now. But thankfully nothing like the S abuse she went through, nothing like a parent dying in front of me. But I had a very difficult to deal with mother. And I've lost a lot. So I could relate to a lot, like how to rebuild yourself after grief and how grief changes you and you can never get your sparkle back. But her story doesn't have a happy ending. This may be controversial, but when Riley just dropped it in that her baby was born of a surrogate. After all the mention of Lisa believing in magical connection to babies in the womb, and with no further info we are left to think the sole reason for surrogacy is due to Riley's burgeoning acting career. I just thought that was so unnatural and sickening. And that after all of the death and macabre imagery of corpses in the book. Then this unnatural farming a baby in a paid stranger's women... That wasn't a bright spot to me when I read it. I thought it was Frankensteinesque. I didn't see any happy ending in the story. I found it so disturbing that I really wished I hadn't read it.
I think YOUR concern with Riley's choice to use a surrogate is a bit unsettling. Go check out the article Riley did with Vanity Fair soon after her mom passed, where she explains that she las Lyme disease that left her with autoimmune issues. She says she didn't feel it was the best choice to carry a child. For you to call it "unnatural" "sickening" "farming a baby" and "frankensteinesque" is unnecessarily critical and ignorant. I hope you educate yourself on the process and the reasons why some women would choose this route.
@@OliveABee I read up on Lyme disease because I knew several people who had it and there is no reason that Riley couldn't have had her own baby and there's reason she needed to have a surrogate with the baby she's expecting now. Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics and is not a lifelong affliction and even if you get pregnant while you have it, the outcome is always good for having a healthy baby. I don't know why Riley lied about this but she did and it even brings in to question for fans if Tupelo and her future sibling are even biologically Elvis' grandchildren. When you start out with a lie, it sets in the seed for doubt and it was disappointing that fans didn't even know about Tupelo until she was spoken about at Lisa's Memorial service at Graceland as if the fans wouldn't have been thrilled to know.
@@debra2700 Do you think Riley owes anything to Elvis fans? It seems like you're seeking invasive details about her health and her daughter's DNA, as if you're entitled to this information. This kind of intrusion is exactly why the family remains so private. I imagine it's quite simple: Riley wanted to take time to enjoy those precious months with her new daughter. I'm sure Riley has no regrets and likely considers it a blessing to have experienced both the early months of her daughter's life and the last months of her mother's life in privacy, free from public speculation and opinion about her daughter and how she was brought to the world, whether positive or not. In the future, it might be best to keep such opinions to yourself....
@@OliveABee Do I seriously think that Elvis Presley's granddaughter owes anything to Elvis' fans? Do you honestly think that if Elvis had continued to drive a truck for Crown Electric making barely enough money to move Gladys and Vernon out of public housing that we would have heard of any of these people, Priscilla, Lisa Marie, Riley and the twins? You act as if there's no connection here or that Riley, a high school drop out like her mother would be where she is today, wealthy with a career in Hollywood without being the granddaughter of the King of Rock and Roll. Priscilla only stuck to Elvis like barnacles on a ship for the chance to have a career and she bolted out of Memphis as soon as she could so no, none of these people would be known today without Elvis Presley. I love how you've conveniently avoided the Lyme Disease and surrogate issue and yes, I've heard people question if this baby is actually Elvis' granddaughter since many couples just want a baby and it doesn't matter to them if the baby is biologically theirs. Michael Jackson fertilized two women's eggs with his sperm and the fertilized egg was implanted in one of the woman's womb so neither woman could claim to be the mother of his son Blanket. These wealthy people do some crazy stuff that money gives them the luxury of doing and we now know the Lyme Disease story is bogus so why trust her on anything else? As for this family remaining private, they're more than welcome to sell Graceland to the state of Tennessee or a private buyer, disconnect themselves from all things Elvis and sail off into the sunset. No one is twisting their arm to market the hell out of him and make money. In the future, it might be best for you to keep your opinions to yourself about what others have the right to do with theirs.
Great review of this book! Yes , dark and heavy looking for some lightness maybe the best part of this book was liberty land and a trip to Hawaii! Thanks anyway!
Yours is the best review I've seen. I have the book next to me. I haven't been able to pick it up and read it. I couldn't understand why. Now, i think I do. Thank you.
A good biography is Learning to Live out Loud by piper Laurie. She’s the actress that played Carrie’s mom in the movie Carrie but she’s had a fascinating life she did a lot of different movies and she also slept with Ronald Reagan when she was 16 that’s in her book nobody talks about that but she said it happened. I love memoirs too.
You're good. It wasn't because of the Elvis movie it was actually because of the Priscilla movie. When Lisa was still alive she was interviewed and said she was going to go from talk ahow to talk show with her book because of the Priscilla movie being in the works. She didn't know she was going to die so she asked Riley if she would help her with her book and Riley said sure and then a month later Lisa died.
It's not like Michael wanted his genes mixed with The Presley's. He had been wanting to be a father forever. He said his life would feel incomplete if he did not form a family and had kids plus he adored children and children adorded being with him because he was a child at heart...so he wanted to be a father really bad
I think the questioning of Michael Jackson’s intentions is racist, and is very weird. First of all, MJ was a gazillions times bigger than Elvis, why would he care about Elvis? You can even read his notes about Elvis. He didn’t “dislike” him but he didn’t care much. The only thing Elvis that he was interested in was studying his life to avoid the pitfalls of fame, coz no one else had fame close to MJ except Elvis, and for that reason, Lisa Marie was the only one who could understand him. That was their connection, nothing to do with his non existent fandom of Elvis. Also MJ wanted to get married and have kids with a person who would be unfazed by his fame, would understand him, who he could trust, who was not after fame & money and would be a loving mother to his kids. He found that in Lisa Marie. Their connection was very genuine. And Riley keeps reiterating this in her book tour, that they were really in love. LMP too says it was the happiest time of her life. However Priscilla never liked MJ, and kept whispering in Lisa’s ear creating paranoia about his intentions. Riley also says this in her NPR interview. Lisa continued going back and forth with MJ for years after the divorce. They saw each other but he didn’t take her back coz he, like Danny, felt too vulnerable. At that time Lisa bitterly assumes it’s probably because all he wanted was kids & Debbie gave them so he doesn’t need her. She just became resentful and bashed him in interviews in the early 2000s. But the truth is Debbie was just a surrogate, he didn’t love her, he loved Lisa & wanted a family & future with her but after the events of the marriage, trust was gone. Lisa doesn’t mention many more issues in their marriage that made MJ lose trust.. her being seemingly on board with having children before getting married but taking OCPs behind his back, which MJ discovered and felt betrayed & devastated, which is when Debbie stepped in, issues with Priscilla constantly poisoning Lisa’s mind, Church of Scientology manipulating her to leave him, the tension between Danny & MJ living together especially after Lisa Marie went on a vacation to Hawaii with Danny, there was a lot of drama that was not included in the book. MJ wasn’t really addicted to drugs in the marriage, he was sedated for dermatological procedures like lupus scar excision for his scalp neuroma from 1993, plus he was given propofol for the first time to get some rest while preparing for the HBO concert, the pressure to appear onstage in America after the traumatising allegations was intense. MJ used to immerse himself in his work to the point he would forget to eat & drink. That compounded with a Viral GE infection sent him almost in hypovolemic shock and he collapsed and had to be hospitalised. His hospitalisation had nothing to do with drugs, nor was he faking it, he was genuinely recovering in the ICU from almost dying but Lisa’s misunderstanding & her panic over losing her father & past trauma being triggered caused problems. There was just a lack of communication and trust in the end. The Western media has painted a strange narrative about MJ, I have seen them change headlines in real time to paint a false picture to degrade him.. in many ways MJ is the “Palestine” of the entertainment industry. It’s taboo to tell the truth about him, most of what’s in the media is propaganda. That’s why Lisa Marie had such a hard time having ppl understand that he was just a normal guy she was happy with. The media even bullied her over marrying MJ & heaved a sigh of relief when she left, even though she herself was devastated by the divorce and was happy with him in the marriage. Isn’t it ironic?
Your post was excellent but I don't agree that Michael's fame was greater than Elvis' fame. Michael was singing with the Jackson 5 when Elvis introduced them when he was appearing in Vegas and Elvis had been a megastar since before Michael was even born. Joe Jackson pushed his sons to fame, Elvis did it on his own. Michael whined all the time about how Joe brutally pushed him and how Michael had no childhood. You left out all of the things that Michael did that drove Lisa crazy like disappearing for weeks and how she told him before the MTV Awards that she didn't want to go onstage because she was terrified and not only did he make her do that, he plants this huge kiss on her which mortified her. Yes, Priscilla couldn't stand Michael but Katherine Jackson wasn't doing cartwheels about the marriage either. I don't care how much Michael wanted a baby and what Lisa promised, there is NO excuse for a husband to say to his wife that if she won't have a baby, another woman will. Lisa, for whatever reasons, felt that the marriage wasn't solid enough to bring a baby into it yet and she should have been given the time and space to make a decision and at that point Michael had turned her into a brood mare instead of the woman he loved. That was insensitive and cruel. MJ isn't the only "Palestine of the entertainment industry." Elvis has been dead and buried for almost 50 years and he's still painted as the pedo who "dated" a 14 year old girl and loved young girls in general when the truth is that the 14 year old girl met a man who was deeply grieving over his mother's death, hated Germany and was desperately homesick for Graceland and terrified that when he got out of the Army, his career would be over and she used it to worm her way into his heart. People are foolish enough to think a young teenager can't dream and scheme her way into an older man's heart but that's precisely what happened. Michael got his trial and was proven overwhelming to be the victim of a family of grifters and con artists for anyone who wants to give him the justice he deserves but Elvis will never get that same chance to prove that he wasn't a pedo because he fell for a stunning beautiful yet truly evil young girl who is still at the age of 78 pushing the narrative that she was used by an older man.
They might have had to wright the book for money because Lisa they say was 3 million in duet she borowed against grasland it's been seen in court I am waiting to see what happens
That whole case has been dismissed. The FBI caught the woman , charged her with fraud and other charges. She’s been in jail and waiting her court appearance.
WAIT A MINUTE . . . You’re WRONG. I thought you said you read the book? Lisa Marie DID NOT die from “drugs,” and Riley was so proud of her for that. Lisa only had a therapeutic amount of drugs in her for the pain she was experiencing. She died from complications to her bariatric surgery. So please make that correction and get it right, don’t take that away from Riley and her family. They’re dealing with enough. Perhaps if you can’t comprehend what you’re reading you should skip book reviews all together. - Huge Presley Fan -
That bothers me too. Lisa was literally carrying around several feet of rotting intestines from complications of bariatric surgery when she visited Graceland for her Dad's birthday and graciously visited with the fans and when she went to the Golden Globe Awards for the movie Elvis. She had to be in excruciating pain but the level of pain killers in her system at the time of her death were no more than you or I would take for pain. What broke my heart was the day that she died, everyone said that she died the same Elvis did without anyone having the facts.
Lisa was 8 months older than me , I don’t like how angry she was but now we know SA happened. SA was very common in the 80’s and if you told someone you weren’t believed even by the police. Rpe culture was very real in the 80’s. Lots of Gen xers did drugs and are my age but dead. I did 20 years of therapy and never took drugs. The 80’s were horrific times, not the good old days like people say..
The fact that she was married to Michael Jackson was single handedly the only reason she was famous and known by the public at large. I know because when she married him I was 16, a huge music fan, and never knew she existed until then. Everything afterwards was a response to that relationship as far as I'm concerned. The end and amen.
lol you are so unserious "oh i had no idea who she was till mj so how could anyone else" this is the most delusional & unhinged thing ive heard from the mj camp in a long time lol and thats saying something!! please lisa was, is & always has been rock royalty from the moment she was born there has never been a time she wasn't recognized as elvis' only child your ignorance about that has nothing to do with the real world & facts
@@belinda35_77 Nope. The general public had not knowledge of a child of Elvis existing before then. It was all news to the rest of us when they were understood to be dating before they were married in 1994. Don't put words in my mouth, misrepresent, and alter what I said, either.
The fact you didn't know who she was doesn't mean she was not famous 😂😂😂 she didn't marry MJ to gain fame as he didn't marry her to gain fame. It's ridiculous. Maybe you belong to a generation that in those years listened to MJ music...but Elvis's popularity and family came previously
