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Lisa Marie Presley kept her son's body for two months after his death


Lisa Marie Presley kept her son's body for two months after his death

A posthumous memoir by Lisa Marie Presley is uncovering new details about how the late musician dealt with the death of her son Benjamin Keough in 2020.

In “From Here to the Great Unknown,” Presley said she kept Benjamin Keough's body on dry ice in her Los Angeles home for two months after he died by suicide at age 27.

“My house has a separate casitas bedroom, and I put Ben there for two months,” Presley wrote in the book, according to NBC News. “There is no law in the state of California that says you have to bury someone immediately.”

She also shared that her family took a similar approach when grieving the death of her father, music legend Elvis Presley, in 1977.

“I found a very compassionate funeral director. “I told her that having my father in the house after his death was incredibly helpful because I was able to spend time with him and talk to him,” she wrote. “She said, 'We're bringing Ben Ben to you.' You can have him there.'”

“I think it would scare the hell out of anyone else if their son was there like that,” she continued. “But not me.”

Lisa Marie Presley was still working on “From Here to the Great Unknown” when she died last year at the age of 54. The book is co-authored by her daughter, actress Riley Keough, who used audio recordings of her mother to complete it.

Benjamin Keough and Lisa Marie Presley in 2010. In her posthumous memoir, Presley shared that she kept Keough's body on dry ice in her Los Angeles home for two months after he died by suicide at the age of 27.
Benjamin Keough and Lisa Marie Presley in 2010. In her posthumous memoir, Presley shared that she kept Keough's body on dry ice in her Los Angeles home for two months after he died by suicide at the age of 27.

Dave M. Benett via Getty Images

The “Mad Max: Fury Road” star wrote in the book that her mother's decision to keep her brother's body at home gave the family “enough time to say goodbye to him, just as she did her father had”.

“And I would go and sit with him,” Keough added.

However, the turning point came, she said, when both she and her mother decided to get tattoos similar to the ones Benjamin Keough had on his collarbone. To ensure consistency in the designs, Presley invited the tattoo artist to her home to look at her son's tattoos up close.

“I've had an extremely absurd life, but this moment ranks in the top 5,” wrote Riley Keough. “Soon after that we all got such a vibe from my brother that he didn’t want his body in this house anymore.”

Both Benjamin Keough and Lisa Marie Presley are now buried at Graceland, Elvis Presley's estate in Memphis, Tennessee.

“From Here to the Great Unknown,” released Monday, contains a number of other remarkable revelations about the life of Lisa Marie Presley. Elsewhere in the book she goes into detail about her decision to marry Michael Jackson in 1994. She claimed the then 35-year-old King of Pop told her he was a virgin before their wedding.

“I believe he had kissed Tatum O'Neal, and he had an affair with Brooke Shields that was not physical other than a kiss,” she wrote.

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