Lisa Marie Presley had a difficult time letting go of her son Benjamin Keough after he died by suicide at age 27 in 2020.
The late 54-year-old wrote in her posthumous memoir, “From Here to the Great Unknown,” that she kept Benjamin’s body on dry ice at her home in Los Angeles for two months after his death.
“My house has a separate casitas bedroom and I kept Ben Ben in there for two months. There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately,” wrote Presley, who died in January 2023.
The only child of Elvis Presley said that she couldn’t decide if she wanted Benjamin to be buried in Hawaii or at the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee.
“I felt so fortunate that there was a way that I could still parent him, delay it a bit longer so that I could become okay with laying him to rest,” she wrote, adding that Benjamin’s body was in a room kept at 55 degrees at all times.
Riley Keough, Presley’s daughter who finished her mom’s memoir, revealed that the pair decided to get tattoos that matched the ones Benjamin had. So, they invited a tattoo artist over to see the ink on Benjamin’s body in person.
“Lisa Marie Presley had just asked this poor man to look at the body of her dead son, which happened to be right next to us in the casitas,” Riley, 35, wrote in the book.
“I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five,” she added.
The “Daisy Jones & the Six” star said that eventually they “got this vibe” from her late brother that he didn’t want his body in Presley’s house anymore.
“‘Guys,’ he seemed to be saying, ‘This is getting weird,’” Riley recalled. “Even my mom said that she could feel him talking to her, saying, ‘This is insane, Mom, what are you doing? What the f–k.’”
But, as Riley noted, it was “really important” for Presley to “have ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she’d done with her dad.” Presley was 9 years old when her famous father died at age 42 in 1977.
A funeral for Benjamin was held in Malibu. He was then buried at Graceland alongside his grandfather, Elvis.
In 2022, Presley wrote an essay for People magazine where she said she was “destroyed” by Benjamin’s death, but had to “keep going” for Riley and her twin daughters, Harper and Finley, 16.
“I keep going for my girls. I keep going because my son made it very clear in his final moments that taking care of his little sisters and looking out for them were on the forefront of his concerns and his mind,” the singer wrote. “He absolutely adored them and they him.”
Presley tragically lost her life at age 54 in January 2023. She went into cardiac arrest due to complications from a small bowel obstruction.
Riley later became the sole trustee of Graceland following a contentious legal battle with her grandmother, Priscilla Presley.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey at Graceland airing Oct. 8 on CBS, Riley opens up about losing her mom and her brother.
“I think having two family members who have passed away, a lot of that time and grief has been spent wondering about where they are,” she said in a preview of the special, while explaining how she came up with the title for Presley’s memoir.
“I think the perspective that I choose to have is that they’re on to a new adventure,” Riley added.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
