Lisa Marie Presley kept the body of her deceased son at home for two months while grappling with the sorrow of his unexpected death, as revealed in a recently published memoir. This account appears in “From Here to the Great Unknown,” which her daughter, actress Riley Keough, completed after Presley’s passing in January of the previous year.
Lisa Marie Presley, who was 54 at the time, was the only child of music legend Elvis Presley. Her son, Benjamin Keough, tragically took his own life at the age of 27 in 2020, an event that devastated his mother.
In her memoir, Keough shared that her mother chose to have Benjamin’s body in their home instead of at the morgue. “They told us that if we could take care of the body, we could keep him at home, so she had him there on dry ice,” Keough recounted. She emphasized the importance of giving her mother the time to say goodbye, similar to how Presley had done with her own father. Keough often sat with her brother during that time.
Presley noted that there are no specific laws in California dictating when a body must be buried. She explained, “My house has a separate casitas bedroom, and I kept Ben Ben in there for two months… I found a very empathetic funeral home owner who agreed to bring him to us.”
Presley candidly stated, “I think it would scare the living f—ing piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that. But not me.” The room where her son’s body was kept was maintained at a cool temperature, allowing her to care for him during this period.
In a unique gesture, both Presley and Keough got matching tattoos, facilitated by an artist who visited their home. The tattoo artist inquired if there were any photos of Benjamin, to which Lisa Marie replied that she could show him her son instead.
Keough reflected on this moment as particularly strange, saying, “I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five.” This event seemed to signal a shift, as soon after, the family began to feel that Benjamin did not want to remain in their home any longer.
Riley Keough conveyed that her brother seemed to communicate a sentiment of discomfort about the situation. “Even my mom said that she could feel him talking to her, saying, ‘This is insane, Mom, what are you doing? What the f—!’”
Eventually, both Lisa Marie Presley and her son were laid to rest at Graceland.