Lisa Marie Presley Opened Up About Keeping Her Son’s Body At Home For Two Months After His Death, And Said She Felt “Fortunate” To Still Be Able To “Parent Him”

"I felt so fortunate that there was a way that I could still parent him, delay it a bit longer so that I could become okay with laying him to rest," Lisa Marie writes in her posthumous memoir.

By
Stephanie Soteriou
by Stephanie Soteriou

BuzzFeed Staff

Lisa Marie Presley’s posthumous memoir has revealed that she kept her son Benjamin Keough’s body at her Los Angeles home for two months after his tragic death in July 2020.

Ben Keough and Lisa Marie Presley attend the World Premiere of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Dave M. Benett / Getty Images

Lisa Marie is the only child of the late music icon Elvis Presley, and she died in January 2023. 


She was writing her memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, at the time, and her daughter, Riley Keough, helped to finish the book after her mom’s death. 


Benjamin, who the family called Ben, died from suicide at the age of 27, and Lisa Marie opened up about her decision to keep his body on dry ice in a casita bedroom at their family home. 

"There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately," she writes, per People, going on to reveal that she was able to keep Ben’s body at home with the help of a kind funeral home owner.

Lisa Marie Presley in an elegant off-shoulder gown standing in front of a blue textured background
Joe Scarnici / Getty Images for Icelandic Glacial

Lisa Marie said that during this time, she was struggling to decide whether she should bury Ben in Hawaii or Graceland, the Tennessee estate where her father lived and was buried. 


"That was part of why it took so long," she explains. "I got so used to him, caring for him and keeping him there. I think it would scare the living fucking piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that. But not me."

 

"I felt so fortunate that there was a way that I could still parent him, delay it a bit longer so that I could become okay with laying him to rest," she adds. 

Lisa Marie was just 9 years old when her dad Elvis died in 1977, and his open casket was kept in Graceland for two days before he was buried.

Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley hold an infant Lisa Marie. Elvis is pointing at his daughter, and Priscilla is smiling
Magma Agency / WireImage

“Having my dad in the house after he died was incredibly helpful because I could go and spend time with him and talk to him,” Lisa Marie writes, with Riley adding that this is what inspired her mom to keep Ben’s body at home.


Riley says that it was “really important” for Lisa Marie to "have ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she'd done with her dad.”

Before burying Ben, Lisa Marie and Riley also decided to get tattoos in his honor. Ben had Riley’s name inked on his collarbone and Lisa’s on his hand, so they chose to get similar ones on the same parts of their bodies, and invited their tattoo artist into the room with Ben’s body to see his inkings up close.

Riley wears a floral skirt and blouse next to Lisa Marie wearing an off-shoulder dark dress
Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

"I've had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five," Riley purportedly writes.


Not long after they’d got the tattoos, Riley recalls: “We all got this vibe from my brother that he didn't want his body in this house anymore. 'Guys,' he seemed to be saying, 'This is getting weird.' Even my mom said that she could feel him talking to her, saying, 'This is insane, Mom, what are you doing? What the fuck!’”


The family ultimately chose to bury Ben with his grandfather in Graceland in October 2020. 

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