Lisa Marie Presley’s Revealing Memoir Released Posthumously

The posthumous memoir of Lisa Marie Presley, titled “From Here to the Great Unknown,” has revealed a deeply personal account of her struggles following the death of her son, Benjamin Keough. The memoir was completed by Presley’s daughter, Riley Keough, and provides insight into Lisa Marie Presley’s grieving process as well as her connection to her late father, Elvis Presley.

One of the most surprising revelations from the memoir includes the decision made by Lisa Marie Presley to keep Benjamin Keough’s body at her home for two months before burying him. Riley Keough detailed this experience, explaining that Presley had chosen to keep her son’s body on dry ice at their home. “It was really important for my mom to have ample time to say goodbye to him,” Keough wrote.

Presley’s decision was facilitated by a sympathetic funeral home owner, citing California’s laws that don’t require immediate burial. “My house has a separate casitas bedroom, and I kept Ben in there for two months,” Presley is quoted as saying. The memoir also describes how Benjamin’s body was preserved at a temperature of 55 degrees and how this unusual period allowed the family time to grieve.

The memoir, published on October 8, 2024, also sheds light on Lisa Marie Presley’s own reaction to her father’s death in 1977. Describing the chaotic scene at Graceland on the day Elvis Presley died, Lisa Marie recounts deeply emotional moments where she realized the gravity of the loss at a young age.

Lisa Marie Presley, who passed away in January 2023 at the age of 54 due to complications from bariatric surgery, left behind tapes of memories that her daughter used to complete the memoir. Reflecting on her mother’s life and public perception, Riley Keough said in an interview with PEOPLE, “What she wanted to do in her memoir, and what I hope I’ve done in finishing it for her, is to go beneath the magazine headline idea of her and reveal the core of who she was.”

Throughout the book, Presley expressed concerns over her father’s health, even writing a poem as a child that pleaded for his survival. Despite the fame and scrutiny faced as Elvis Presley’s daughter, Riley aimed to portray her mother as “the best mother, a wild child, a fierce friend, an underrated artist, frank, funny, traumatized, joyous, grieving.”

The memoir also discusses Lisa Marie Presley’s ongoing grief for her son and how it was expressed through private moments listening to Elvis’s music. An exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey is scheduled to provide further insights into Lisa Marie’s struggles with grief, highlighting the personal challenges she faced that were not publicly recognized during her lifetime.