Priscilla Presley on life after Elvis

‘No one could ever match him,’ actor says about her late ex-husband

Priscilla Presley has revealed why she never remarried after her divorce from her late husband, Elvis Presley.

The 78-year-old actor spoke candidly about her marriage of six years during a Q&A event at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas on 3 November. During the event, as reported by People, Priscilla appeared to confirm the ongoing rumour that she agreed to never get married again as long as Elvis was still alive.

“I just don’t think that he could handle that,” she said about the musician, who died in 1977 after a heart attack.

According to Priscilla, even after her ex had passed away, she still hasn’t been interested in getting married again. She shared her belief that her second marriage wouldn’t be able to compare to her first.

“To be honest with you, I never wanted to marry after him. I never had any desire,” she said. “No one could ever match him.”

During the event, Priscilla also spoke candidly about her ex’s busy career, which is why they chose not to have more children after welcoming their only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, who died in January 2023 after suffering from cardiac arrest.

“Elvis felt he had a very busy schedule and he did have a bit of guilt that he wasn’t around that much when Lisa was younger,” Priscilla explained. “With his scheduling and his touring, he just felt he wasn’t around enough to give a lot of attention to having another.”

The former couple first met in 1959 in Germany, as Elvis was serving in the US Army. They went on to get married in 1967, before separating in 1972 and getting divorced the following year. Their relationship is now the subject of Priscilla, Sofia Coppola’s new biopic, which stars Cailee Spainee and Jacob Elordi as the young couple.

Leading up to and following the film’s release, Priscilla has continued to speak candidly about her marriage to the “Jailhouse Rock” singer. During a press conference after the movie’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival, she opened up about why she felt so connected to Elvis when they first met in Germany.

“Elvis would pour his heart out to me in every way in Germany: his fears, his hopes, the loss of his mother – which he never, ever got over,” she explained. “And I was the person who really, really sat there to listen and to comfort him. That was really our connection.”

She also specified that she and Elvis were in the same “line of thought” when they met, despite their 10-year age difference.

“Even though I was 14, I was actually a little bit older in life – not in numbers. That was the attraction,” Priscilla recalled, as Elvis was 24 when they first met. “People think: ‘Oh, it was sex.’ No, it wasn’t. I never had sex with him. He was very kind, very soft, very loving, but he also respected the fact I was only 14 years old. We were more in line in thought, and that was our relationship.”

During an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored on 2 November, she opened up about the early days of her relationship with Elvis, noting that when they started dating, he’d always call her parents to make sure that it was okay for her to come over on the weekends. She then opened up about why Elvis was so interested in her at the time, noting that he valued how much he could trust her in the midst of his public music career.

“That whole, I mean, part of my life was getting to know him, but the question was ‘Why me? Why is he drawn to me? Why is he asking my mother and father if it was okay if I would go visit?’” she explained. “When I put all the pieces together, it’s because I was the listener. I was the one that he trusted more, I think than anyone. And I honoured that and I would never give that up. I never told kids at school that I was seeing him. No one even knew because I valued that trust.”