Lisa Marie Presley passed away in January of this year at the age of 54. She left a vast and complicated estate to her living children, Riley Keough and twins Finley and Harper Lockwood. Reportedly, Lisa Marie wanted Riley and Riley’s late brother Ben to act as executors for her estate, but that wasn’t the only thing making it complicated. Priscilla Presley, LM’s mother, had long-time arrangements within the trust controlling Graceland and the Presley estate. When LM passed away, Priscilla immediately moved to invalidate LM’s will and seemingly take over her daughter’s estate. Riley hasn’t said much about it publicly, but you could tell that the last thing she wanted to do was fight her grandmother over her mom’s estate. So, they apparently let the lawyers figure it out and now there’s some kind of settlement:
Lisa Marie Presley’s loved ones have reached a settlement in the battle over her trust. Legal counsel for Priscilla Presley and Riley Keough reached a settlement at a Los Angeles courthouse Tuesday, with Riley’s side set to submit a settlement request under seal for both the Promenade and an insurance trust, PEOPLE confirms.
“They have reached a settlement. Families are happy,” Ronsen Shamoon, Priscilla’s lawyer, told reporters. “Everyone is happy. Unified and together and excited for the future.”
Justin Gold, Keough’s attorney added, “[Riley] would not have agreed to the settlement if she was not happy with it.”
The next hearing and motion for approval is scheduled for Aug. 4.
Lisa Marie, the only child of Elvis Presley and ex-wife Priscilla, died in January at the age of 54 after suffering a cardiac arrest. An ongoing trust battle ensued four days after Lisa Marie’s memorial in January, when lawyers for Priscilla filed a petition in Los Angeles questioning the “authenticity and validity” of a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s living trust.
No one has specific details about what happened, so I assume a fair compromise was reached. Either that or Riley just gave her grandmother whatever she wanted, because again, I’m not sure Riley had the heart to really fight about this. Priscilla also released an exclusive statement to People Mag about the settlement:
Priscilla Presley says her family is “stronger than ever” after she and granddaughter Riley Keough came to an agreement over the late Lisa Marie Presley’s trust in a Los Angeles courthouse.
“My family has resolved all confusion as it relates to our plea to the court and request for document interpretation after my daughter Lisa Marie’s untimely passing,” Priscilla says in a statement shared exclusively with PEOPLE. “Although some media identified such a plea as a lawsuit, I want to make clear that there was never any lawsuit filed against my beloved granddaughter. As a family, we are pleased that we resolved this together. My family and I hope that everyone will grant us the privacy we have needed to properly grieve Lisa Marie and spend personal time together. We love and appreciate all of you and the Presley family is stronger than ever.”
Reps for Riley have not responded to PEOPLE’s requests for comment following the settlement.
“Although some media identified such a plea as a lawsuit” – Lisa Marie had not even been gone a full week before Priscilla and her lawyers were in court, contesting LM’s (valid although out-of-date) will. I do wonder what happened behind the scenes, but we’ll probably never find out. How distasteful this was.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood, Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley, Riley Keough, Finley Aaron Love Lockwood attends the Handprint And Footprint Ceremony honoring Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley And Riley Keough at TCL Chinese Theatre on June 21, 2022 in Hollywood, California,Image: 701640210, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood, Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Pres, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley, Riley Keough attends the Handprint And Footprint Ceremony honoring Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley And Riley Keough at TCL Chinese Theatre on June 21, 2022 in Hollywood, California,Image: 701640237, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley, Riley Keough, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood, Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley, Riley Keough, Finley Aaron Love Lockwood attends the Handprint And Footprint Ceremony honoring Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley And Riley Keough at TCL Chinese Theatre on June 21, 2022 in Hollywood, California,Image: 701640266, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood, Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Pres, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood, Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley, Riley Keough, Finley Aaron Love Lockwood attends the Handprint And Footprint Ceremony honoring Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley And Riley Keough at TCL Chinese Theatre on June 21, 2022 in Hollywood, California,Image: 701640279, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood, Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Pres, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Priscilla Presley arrives at the Academy’s 13th Governors Awards on Saturday, November 19, 2022, in Los Angeles.,Image: 739030469, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Editorial Use Only, Model Release: no, Credit line: Blaine Ohigashi / Avalon
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- HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – FEBRUARY 23: American actress Riley Keough wearing a Schiaparelli Couture dress arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ Season 1 held at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on February 23, 2023 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 758399948, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Riley Keough, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- Riley Keough attends the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Celebrating the 95th Annual Academy Awards Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 12, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California,Image: 762361963, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Riley Keough, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Amazon Prime screening and Q&A of ‘Daisy Jones and The Six’ at 92nd Y in New York. Featuring: Riley Keough Where: New York, New York, United States When: 27 Feb 2023 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
The way Priscilla had her lawyers in court contesting her daughter’s will before she was even good and buried was disgusting. I’ll never look at her the same way again. Shame on her
Same!
I am not a huge Priscilla fan but people must realize that Riley is not the only one Lisa will was meant.to provide for. Her twin Sisters have equal shares and.I.am sure Priscilla is making sure.they ate taken care of
@ Pamela – And the twins were provided for. Priscilla was not advocating for them but for herself. The twins were included in the will and parents are not automatic recipients of their children’s estate.
I agree. Her will stated her wishes and Priscilla immediately moved to invalidated those wishes. Disgusting. The money was hers, and Priscilla comes off looking like the vulture and free-rider that she is. Gross.
+1
Same. I used to respect the hell out of Priscilla because she took Elvis’ crumbling name/estate and turned it around into an empire (for which she made a boatload of money for herself).
Now she just looks like another grifting leech.
Riley and Priscilla are both Scientologists so however it played out the Church of Scientology was the big winner. Even after Lisa Marie left Scientology, Riley was allowed to maintain contact with her, unlike others who have family members leave. Likely so that the inheritance would be secured for the benefit of C of S.
I wonder if someone at CoS brokered this deal.
That makes me sad, that she left the CoS but her money may end up there anyway against her wishes.
equality, Right on! How is the policy of disconnection made for others but the wealthy members don’t have to disconnect from ex-Sci members. Hmmm…..That cult makes me sick!
Yeah it does sound like Riley just accepted Priscilla’s claim.
Riley absolutely got steamrolled.
Guarantee she got the “we’re family” and “I’m the elder so I know what’s best”, “don’t you love/trust me” lines with the vague threat of being cut off from all love/support if there was no compliance.
Elvis didn’t have a lot of personal wealth when he passed and Priscilla turned Graceland/EPE into consistently one of the biggest revenue generating personal estates for almost 50 years now. I’d be willing to bet there was as much “I am the reason you have the comfortable life you have” as there was tugging at the familial heartstrings
My thoughts as well.
You said it, “for almost 50 years”! After half a century of a unchallenged monopolistic reign, wouldn’t it be decent for an 80-something-year-old woman whose future is behind her, to let go and allow her granddaughters to enjoy what is rightfully theirs?
Decency is gone. Priscilla has ready buried a grandchild and a child. Who’s next? I have zero respect for the greedy matriarch, sorry.
Distasteful is a good word. I don’t know why I’m not really convinced by the “Riley wouldn’t have agreed if she wasn’t happy” bit. It’s all just seems dodgy as.
Riley is very good in Daisy Jones and the Six. Maybe she’s looking forwards not backwards, got enough and figured it will all roll her way eventually (no colder that PP jumping in with lawyers before LM was buried)
Priscilla has always been a manipulative piece of work – there are reason LM cut her off to begin with. It could be that Riley settled to avoid issues with her ex step father who is still friendly with Priscilla and is a total grifter.
The fact that Priscilla is gloating to the press about it means that she got what she wanted – either a nice big payout or a guaranteed pension from the estate. That woman has always been about the money and Elvis’s image.
This right here. Lisa Marie moved to England to get away from her and COS for a reason. I’m sure the girl is just tired and gave her (mostly) whatever she wanted.
If Elvis had lived Priscilla would have had nothing going for her. She benefited from his death and essentially took ownership of his career and legacy. It’s different for Lisa Marie because she was his only child and heir, she had no choice, but Priscilla chose to to keep the Presley name and dedicate her life to cashing in on a man who divorced her 50 years ago.
She may have been his wife, but I doubt she was the great love of his life.
As for Riley, she has her own career going on, I don’t think she wants to dedicate her life to running the EPE, but it’s still hers and her sisters inheritance and her mother wanted her to have it. Unlike Priscilla, I don’t think Riley want to build her career off of being a Presley.
Maybe. I don’t know a lot about their history, but when a 14 year old girl dates a 24 year old man — who she eventually marries, I’d guess that he might have convinced her that she was “the great love of his life.” I’d also guess that she could have used some parental protection in the mix. If she’s “manipulative “ and focused on Elvis’s legacy and “cashing in”, perhaps that balances some of the experiences and opportunities that she missed as a young teen trying to keep up with a grown man with very public fame. Maybe Priscilla would have had “more going for her” if her early years ( ha!) had been less disrupted?
Estate lawyer here – and can confirm that Wills are usually filed with the probate court very quickly after death – so that the executors can deal with market fluctuations in any investment accounts and stand in for the decedent in business matters. The estate lawyers are usually submitting the paperwork and serving notice on family members at the same time burial arrangements are being made. So if anyone does have a challenge to the Will or want the court to “interpret” it as Priscilla worded it – that request would have to be made as soon as notice is received before the court admits the Will. So on the timing point it’s not distasteful of her to have done what she did so quickly. But yeah challenging the Will in general and needing to settle with your grandchildren seems less warm and fuzzy family vibes than she wants us to believe.
@Kate Is it possible that LMP drafted her will in contemplation of out surviving her mother and this is just PP stepping in as a trustee of Graceland ?
I’m trying to piece together what happened from news reports but it actually looks like what was challenged was LMP’s Revocable Living Trust which is a trust created during someone’s lifetime and contains all the same provisions as a Will – it’s meant to avoid the probate process for a Will.
I read that PP and someone else were named Trustees of this trust, but in 2016, LMP signed an amendment naming herself as sole Trustee and her children as her successor Trustees. But PP claims she never received notice of the amendment, which was required because she would have been removed as Trustee by this amendment. She also questioned its validity due to problems with the signature, it not being witnessed or notarized and it being a copy as opposed to an original.
If this is all true then it would definitely make sense to question the validity of this amendment. It’s very weird that someone would modify their own trust and remove Trustees without notifying the current Trustees of their removal. I might be missing details that aren’t reported though – I wish I could see the documents themselves! I also think this could have been handled amicably with her granddaughter if they really were close, because Riley likely could have just appointed her grandmother as co-Trustee without the court’s involvement if that’s what they both wanted.
Kind of defending Priscilla ….she didn’t just arbitrarily do this. It looks like someone went behind her back and tried to change the will. She says correctly that she should’ve been notified before LMs death. Add in the shady facts about her name being misspelled and LMs unfamiliar signature and also a timeline to challenge will . I don’t blame her for that or the unfortunate timing.
I would be interested to know who was responsible and if LM then who advised her to do such a bad job changing the will.
And all the stuff you just listed. Who informed the press about all those things? Could it possibly have been Prescilla?
That’s Priscilla’s PR team talking. We don’t know that that is actually true, and it would be no shocker at all for LMP to remove her mother. Priscilla gloating and releasing statements on every move looks awful and it wouldn’t be the first time.
Well, you know what they say:
“Where there’s a will, there’s a greedy relative.”
At least it won’t drag out for years and they can just move on from this. Sometimes the best victory is freeing yourself from a tedious mess like this was. The prize is your freedom.
True but LMP hadn’t even been buried yet. That’s just cruel, no matter who you are. Plus LMP left 2 minors as well. PP could have waited a week after the funeral to proceed with the lawsuits, and if it was an issue beforehand, simply pay for the funeral and burial to allow everyone to start grieving first.
I agree, BothSidesNow.