The late Lisa Marie Presley got a matching tattoo with her late son Benjamin Keough after he died, her daughter Riley Keough said Tuesday.
Keough, 35, spoke with Oprah Winfrey, 70, on a special titled An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie And Riley, in which she spoke about her family’s star-crossed history.
Keough said that in the new book her mother penned before her death (which Keough finished) – From Here to the Great Unknown – Lisa Marie opened up on making the decision to keep her late son’s body in a guest home at her Los Angeles mansion for two months.
Lisa Marie utilized dry ice to preserve his remains following Benjamin’s July 2020 suicide, and also got a matching tattoo with her late son amid her grieving process.
‘On paper, I can see how this sounds completely insane and absurd,’ Keough said. ‘But my mom was just very much herself … she wasn’t a crazy lady. She was just herself.’
The late Lisa Marie Presley got a matching tattoo with her late son Benjamin Keough after he died, her daughter Riley Keough said Tuesday
The late mother and son were pictured in Las Vegas in 2015
Keough continued: ‘And this was just a moment where she wanted to get his name – she wanted to get a matching tattoo with him on her hand. And the tattoo artist was there … at my house.’
Keough said Lisa Marie ‘really wanted the placement to be exactly right’ on the tattoos.
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Lisa Marie Presley kept son Benjamin's dead body on dry ice in her home for two months
Keough told Oprah that the tattoo artist asked Lisa Marie if she had any photos that would be helpful in the process, and Lisa Marie volunteered to show the artist using the body itself.
‘He’s like, “Okay, do you have any photos?” Kind of a thing. And she was, like, “No – but I can show you.”‘
Keough said she was taken aback amid the macabre moment amid her mother’s grief.
‘And I was just sitting there, like, this is … I stayed quiet because it’s my mom,’ Keough told Oprah. ‘And she – she does what she wants. But it was definitely one of the most, like, absurd moments.’
Keough said that Lisa Marie told the tattooist, ‘My son is here, you know, in the back room. I can show you,’ and that she had followed them because she was in the habit of ‘sort of mopping up behind her, whatever chaos she was creating.’
Keough said the tattoo artist ‘was very normal about the whole thing’ amid the unusual circumstances.
‘And then when he left I was, like, “Do you know how crazy that was what you just did?”‘ Keough said she asked her mother.
Keough said she was taken aback amid the macabre moment amid her mother’s grief
Oprah Winfrey, 70, and Riley Keough, 35, the firstborn granddaughter of the late Elvis Presley, chat about the ongoing battle over his Graceland estate and the death of her mother Lisa Marie
Keough said that Lisa Marie told the tattooist, ‘My son is here, you know, in the back room. I can show you,’ and that she had followed them because she was in the habit of ‘sort of mopping up behind her, whatever chaos she was creating’
Keough also said that Lisa Marie had an eerie premonition the evening before her father Elvis Presley’s fatal heart attack at 42 on August 16, 1977 at Graceland, her daughter Riley Keough said Tuesday.
Keough said that in the new book her mother delved into detail about how a nine-year-old Lisa Marie had an inkling her famed father was about to die.
‘I think this is the first time she’s ever talked in detail about his death,’ Keough said. ‘She would tell me.’
Keough confirmed that her late mother ‘definitely’ as a child ‘could sense that’ Elvis was in his final moments.
The rare special from Winfrey aired about three years after the 70-year-old media icon made headlines for a pair of high-profile broadcasts with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry; and Adele.
The interview stemming from the famed Memphis mansion marks the first in-depth chat Keough has done since the January 12, 2023 death of her mother Lisa Marie Presley at 54, according to CBS News.
Keough, star of Daisy Jones & The Six, had been in legal clashes with her grandmother Priscilla Presley, 79, over conditions of Lisa Marie’s will and estate in the nearly two years since her passing.
While they were reportedly not talking at one point, they came to a settlement in June of 2023 and reconciled earlier this year for a joint appearance at the Emmy Awards.
Lisa Marie Presley had an eerie premonition the evening before her father Elvis Presley’s fatal heart attack at 42 on August 16, 1977 at Graceland, her daughters Riley Keough said Tuesday
The late Elvis Presley and Lisa Marie Presley pictured in 1972
Keough in recent years has also fended off fraudsters after the famed family was targeted in a high-profile scam.
A Missouri woman named Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, was arrested last month in connection with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in the scheme, officials with the Department of Justice said, NBC News reported.
Prosecutors said Findley had a checkered legal past of scams and fraud, as well as a variety of aliases.
Findley in August appeared in Springfield, Missouri at the United States Courthouse ahead of Judge David Rush, where she consented to hearings occurring in the Western District of Tennessee.
An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie And Riley was filmed at the famed Memphis mansion marking the first in-depth chat Keough has done since the January 12, 2023 death of her mother Lisa Marie Presley at 54
Prosecutors in the case said that Findley had incorporated the use of fake identities, post office boxes, phones and faxes in connection with the attempted flimflam. Findley denied any involvement this past June, NBC News reported.
The issue emerged after Keough sued and obtaining a temporary restraining order in May over a scheduled auction of the property.
A judge in Memphis had blocked an auction of the 13-acre estate, the AP reported after reviewing court documents, after a company named Naussany Investments and Private Lending said that Lisa Marie had used the estate against a $3.8 million she took out in 2018 for her Promenade Trust.
Keough, who inherited her mother’s trust and the estate follower her death, said in legal docs that Naussany Investments and Private Lending had given her fraudulent info over the loan in September of 2023.
Keough’s lawyer said in legal docs, ‘Lisa Maria Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments.’
A notary whose name was listed on the documents named Kimberly Philbrick said she had never met Lisa Marie Presley or worked on any projects with her in the filing from Keough’s team.
‘Elvis Presley Enterprises can confirm that these claims are fraudulent,’ Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. said in a statement May 21. ‘There is no foreclosure sale. Simply put, the counter lawsuit has been filed is to stop the fraud.’
Graceland initially opened to the public as a museum in 1982, five year’s after Elvis’s death at 42 in August of 1977.
The interview stemming from the famed Memphis mansion marks the first in-depth chat Keough has done since the January 12, 2023 death of her mother Lisa Marie Presley at 54. Pictured two days before her passing attending the Golden Globes in LA
Keough had been in legal clashes with her grandmother Priscilla Presley, 79, over conditions of Lisa Marie’s will and estate, but they came to a settlement in June of 2023 and reconciled earlier this year for a joint appearance at the Emmy Awards
Graceland initially opened to the public as a museum in 1982, five year’s after Elvis’s death at 42 in August of 1977
Keough pictured with famed stylist Jamie Mizrahi in NYC earlier this month
An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie And Riley is slated to air on CBS Tuesday, October 8 at 8/7c
The special with Winfrey will also feature previously-unseen Presley family images and video, CBS said, as well as Keough expanding on ‘the highs, lows and pressures of being a Presley’ and ‘the deep, profound relationship she had with her mother.’
Lisa Marie in her final years had recorded hours of audio amid her work on a book titled From Here to the Great Unknown, which Keough completed after her mother’s death, the TV network said.
In one passage, Lisa Marie said of Elvis: ‘I felt my father could change the weather. He was a god to me. A chosen human being.’
An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie And Riley is slated to air on CBS Tuesday, October 8 at 8/7c.
It is slated to air concurrently on Paramount+ for subscribers of Paramount+ with Showtime; and will stream on-demand beginning October 9 for subscribers of Paramount+ Essentials.