Michael Jackson’s ex-mother-in-law says he married Lisa Presley ‘not out of love’

Priscilla Presley believes that pop star Michael Jackson married her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, only for her father’s fame, not for love.

In her upcoming memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis , Priscilla Presley – Elvis Presley’s ex-wife – says she did not support the relationship between her daughter Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson .

“I was shocked by the marriage,” Priscilla, 80, wrote in her memoir, according to excerpts published by The Sun on September 21.

“I always felt Michael did not marry Lisa for love, but for the Presley family name. He was a manipulator and had his sights set on her long before Lisa realized it. The innocence he displayed was just a mask to the public.”

Priscilla said she had suspected that Jackson and Lisa did not have a physical relationship, and asked her daughter about it.

“Like many others, I wasn’t sure. She said ‘yes’,” Priscilla recalled.

Lisa Marie was married to musician Danny Keough and had two children – Riley and Benjamin – before her relationship with Michael Jackson.

When Lisa married Michael in May 1994, Jackson was facing allegations of abusing a young boy.

“I don’t believe he loved Lisa. Jackson needed a favorable public image, showing himself as an attractive, normal man,” Priscilla said.

She said she only met Jackson once and believed that the wedding with Lisa helped the singer escape the scandal: “The photo of Elvis’s daughter wearing the giant diamond ring that Jackson had made for her is truly a valuable image.”

Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson on January 18, 1996, less than two years after their marriage.

According to Priscilla, when the marriage ended, she “almost heard Elvis breathe a sigh of relief.” Priscilla was referring to her famous ex-husband who died in 1977 at the age of 42 from a heart attack.

Michael Jackson had a short-lived marriage to the daughter of the King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley.

After the divorce, Michael Jackson married nurse Debbie Rowe and had two children: Prince, now 28, and Paris, 27.

The King of Pop had his youngest son, Blaket, 23, through a surrogate. Michael died in 2009 at the age of 50 from a painkiller overdose.

As for Lisa Marie, after her marriage to Michael Jackson, she married actor Nicolas Cage and then musician Michael Lockwood.

The singer had two twins, Harper and Finley (16 years old), with Michael before divorcing in 2021. In January 2023, Lisa Marie died at the age of 54 due to intestinal obstruction.

In her memoir published after her death (compiled by her daughter Riley from the tapes her mother left behind), Lisa once told about her love affair with Jackson : “Michael told me that he loved me, wanted to marry me and have children with me. At first I was silent, then I confessed that I loved him too.”

Lisa even confirmed that Jackson was still a virgin when they dated, even though he had previously gone out with Brooke Shields, Madonna, etc.

“When he initiated a kiss, everything started happening. I thought I would have to wait until marriage to have sex, but Michael said, ‘I can’t wait any longer,’” Lisa wrote in her memoir From Here to the Great Unknown.