Riley Keough has addressed whether there is a ‘curse’ on her famous family.
The 35-year-old actress said on Tuesday that she doesn’t think so.
She is the granddaughter of late rock and roll legend Elvis Presley – who died in 1977 at the age of 42 – and after her mother Lisa Marie Presley passed away in January 2023 aged 54. Her brother Benjamin died in 2020 at age 27.
Speaking live on stage at the Jerry Moss Theater in Los Angeles on the last stop of her book tour, she said: ‘I think the word “curse” is used because my family are looked at as this not real mythology or something, but really it’s just very common things, like addiction.
‘Everyone in here has loved somebody with addiction issues or has lost somebody tragically.’
Riley has insisted that her ‘dream’ for the future is that there will not be any ‘addiction struggles’ within the family.
Riley Keough has addressed whether there is a ‘curse’ on her famous family. The 35-year-old actress said on Tuesday that she doesn’t think so; seen on Oprah in October
She is the granddaughter of late rock and roll legend Elvis Presley – who died in 1977 at the age of 42 – and after her mother Lisa Marie Presley passed away in January 2023 aged 54. Her brother Benjamin died in 2020; seen with mom in 2017
‘I mean, the hope is that the future generations of our family aren’t going to struggle so much with addiction. Of course, that’s the dream.’
Lisa Marie – who was married to Danny Keough from 1988 until 1995 – passed away following a sudden cardiac arrest.
In 2020 her son Benjamin took his own life at the age of 27.
The Daisy Jones and the Six star is now the sole heir of the Graceland estate left behind by her grandfather following an intense legal battle with her grandmother Priscilla Presley and noted that she was ‘very involved’ in the proceedings before her mother passed, and it was only the ‘attention’ that was new to her.
She said: ‘There was a lot of attention on it and me, but prior to that, it was something I was very involved in.
‘And my mom was very … if there were things with the estate, whatever we were, I was very involved in it already.
‘So it wasn’t like, “Whoa, what is this new thing?” My mom would come to me with everything.
‘So there was that awareness and it was something that I was familiar with. That wasn’t a new thing basically, I would say — but I’d say the attention on it was new.’
Elvis seen at home in a photo shared by Riley on Oprah
Elvis seen in an image Riley supplied to Oprah’s CBS special
Speaking live on stage at the Jerry Moss Theater in Los Angeles on the last stop of her book tour, she said: ‘I think the word “curse” is used because my family are looked at as this not real mythology or something, but really it’s just very common things, like addiction,’ said Riley; seen with Lisa Marie in 2022
This comes after Riley believes Lisa Marie Presley reached ‘the end’ of her life when her son Benjamin died.
The late singer – daughter of superstar Elvis Presley – was left distraught when Benjamin Keough took his own life in 2020 at the age of 27.
Riley is convinced the loss of her younger brother had a devastating impact on her mother, who died less than three years later in January 2023 at the age of 54.
During a TV special with Oprah Winfrey, Riley explained she worried for her mom after Benjamin, telling the media mogul: ‘The moment my brother died, I was like, “This is the end of her,” because they were so close.
‘They were as close as Elvis was with his mother, and I just couldn’t imagine a world where she would make it without him.’
Riley believes Lisa Marie reached ‘the end’ of her life when her son Benjamin died in 2020
Riley went on to admit fears for her mother grew during the last few weeks of her life, adding: ‘The last three weeks that she was alive I was with her a few times that I felt worried.
‘I think there was always sort of an undertone for me because of this feeling that I was on borrowed time with her.
‘But there were a couple interactions with her that she just felt detached in a way, a kind of a resignation.’
Oprah asked the actress if she feared Lisa Marie was using drugs again after previously battling an opioid addiction and Riley replied: ‘It didn’t feel like drugs. I have a lot of experience with the drugs. It felt like a tired person.’
Lisa Marie was buried in the meditation garden at the family’s Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee alongside her dad Elvis and son Benjamin and Riley explained she finds it difficult to visit the property where the interview with Oprah took place.
She said: ‘I don’t want to come here usually, and I have to sort of force myself to come. And then once I’m here, I really feel a sense of closeness when I go sit in the meditation garden.’
It comes after it was revealed Lisa Marie kept her late son’s body in her home for two months using dry ice in a separate casitas room on the grounds of her Los Angeles house.
Riley is convinced the loss of her younger brother had a devastating impact on her mother, who died less than three years later in January 2023 at the age of 54
Also in the book, Riley said that Ben was a lot like Elvis
In her posthumous memoir From Here to the Great Unknown, obtained by DailyMail.com, she wrote: ‘There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately.’
Riley – who finished the book after her mother’s death – wrote 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’.
Lisa went on to explain she just wanted to continue caring for her son even after he had passed away. She wrote: ‘That was part of why it took so long. I got so used to him, caring for him and keeping him there. I think it would scare the living f****** p*** 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.’