Priscilla Presley says she was ‘appalled’ by daughter’s Michael Jackson marriage

Priscilla Presley has explained why she was appalled by daughter Lisa Marie’s marriage to Michael Jackson.

Priscilla, 80, has opened up about the 1994 marriage in her new memoir, recalling the moment Lisa Maria phoned to inform her she was engaged to the “Thriller” singer.

She said she was not happy with the news as she questioned Jackson’s motives.

“I was appalled by the marriage,” Priscilla wrote in Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis.

”I knew in my bones that Michael wasn’t marrying Lisa Marie; he was marrying the Presley dynasty.”

Priscilla accused the King of Pop of being “a manipulative man”, adding: “I think he had his sights set on her long before she realised it.”

She claimed Jackson actively avoided her after the marriage – and said his Jackon’s “childlike innocence was part of his public mask”.

When they announced their divorce less than two years later, Priscilla said she could “practically hear Elvis sigh with relief”.

Lisa Marie, who died in January 2023, was 25 when she married Jackson, who was 35. When the pair became romantic, she was still married to her first husband, musician Danny Keough.

In a memoir published posthumously, Presley recalled Jackson declaring his love for her during a trip to Las Vegas.

“Michael said, ‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m completely in love with you. I want us to get married and for you to have my children,’” Presley writes.