Priscilla Presley on the Heartbreaking Moment Lisa Marie Was Taken Off Life Support

Priscilla Presley is opening up about loss in her new book “Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis.”

That includes the loss of her ex-husband Elvis Presley in 1977, her grandson Benjamin Keough in 2020, and her daughter Lisa Marie Presley in 2023.

In the new issue of People magazine, out Friday, Priscilla said losing Lisa Marie was the “second saddest day of my life, other than losing Elvis.”

“It took a long time to come to terms with the fact that Lisa was gone,” the grieving mother shared. 

Lisa Marie died from a small-bowel obstruction caused by a past bariatric surgery. Her ex-husband Danny Keough found Lisa Marie unresponsive at her home, and she was rushed to the hospital.

Priscilla told People, "We were there all day long. Lisa really wasn't breathing, so she was on the ventilator. For hours we were there waiting, hoping and praying until the doctor came in and said, 'Priscilla, I'm so sorry, she's gone.' We just couldn't believe it — didn't want to believe it. It was hard on all of us, it still is."

Presley also shared an excerpt from her new book, about the moment Lisa Marie was taken off life support. 

In the book, she writes, “I knew from the first moment I walked into Lisa’s hospital room that she was already gone. She was hooked to a machine that was breathing for her, and she had a heartbeat. There was little brain activity. Her spirit, always so vital, wasn’t there.”

She said Lisa Marie’s daughter Riley Keough also “felt her mother’s spirit pass” as she flew out to see her that day.

Priscilla said regardless “none of us was ready to give up yet.”

Later, she said she had just stepped out of the hospital room when she heard an emergency alarm.

She wrote the devastating words, “It was a code blue; Lisa’s heart had stopped.”

Doctors restarted Lisa Marie’s heart, but Priscilla asked, “What kind of life will she have if we keep her on that machine?”

The doctor told her, “No quality of life at all.”

Presley recalled, “I thought about my girl, my wild, rebellious, passionate girl, lying in a vegetative state for the rest of her life… I said what I had to. ‘Take her off the machine, Doctor.’ My voice was barely above a whisper.”

As they began to unhook the medical devices, she wanted to go tell the other loved ones at the hospital so they could say goodbye. 

She said Lisa Marie’s ex Danny was with her and cried, “No, Nona! Don’t go! We can’t leave her all alone!”

Priscilla shared, “It was unbearable. I began to sob. I don’t remember falling. I know that [my cousin] Ivy caught me. After that, everything went dark. I can’t remember. I don’t want to remember.”

"Extra" had just spoken with Lisa Marie at the Golden Globes days before her death. She appeared a bit uneven on the red carpet, even leaning on her friend and Elvis' longtime manager Jerry Schilling for support.