Priscilla Presley delivers speech at Lisa Marie Presley memorial
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, aged 42. He was found in the bathroom of his home, Graceland, by his fiancée, Ginger Alden. His cause of death was cardiac arrest, thought to be brought on by his excessive drug use in the preceding years, but his ex-wife Priscilla Presley claimed the star didn’t think he had a problem.
Elvis used prescription drugs religiously throughout his entire life. When Priscilla first arrived in the USA as a teenager, she recalled in her memoir that they experimented with sleeping pills to get through their busy schedules. This dependency on drugs continued long into their marriage, however, and eventually, things got out of hand.
Elvis was checked into the hospital a few times due to the toll taken on his body.
Priscilla wrote in her book that she was asked why she never staged an intervention for Elvis when his addiction was at its worst. She admitted he wouldn’t have listened to her.
Priscilla wrote: “People who ask that don’t know Elvis. Elvis would no more have responded to an intervention than a demand to give up singing.”
She added that he would have “undoubtedly laughed away” any attempt at an intervention.
Priscilla continued: “There’s no one, including his father [Vernon Presley], who could have pulled that off.”
Despite the fact Elvis was undoubtedly using drugs throughout his life, Priscilla said he never felt he had a problem.
Elvis was prescribed the drugs from a doctor he was close friends with. He had become hooked on both sleeping pills and other kinds of prescription pills.
Priscilla explained that, because his drugs were prescribed, he didn’t feel they were a problem. “That made a big difference in his mind,” she said. “And secondly, he hated street drugs and campaigned for their elimination. So how could he be an addict himself?”
In the recently released biopic, Elvis, from Baz Luhrmann, Priscilla was depicted as a doting wife who attended his bedside when he was frequently hospitalised. This was far from the truth, however.
Alanna Nash, a biographer for the Presleys, previously said: “She [Priscilla Presley] says in her book – Elvis and Me – that she would occasionally hear that he had checked into the hospital, and that she would then call to see if he was all right.”
Instead, Elvis’ ex-girlfriend Linda Thompson would visit him. She recently explained: “Every time Elvis was hospitalised, I’d share his room.”
She added: “The film showed his ex-wife, Priscilla, at his bedside. She never even visited him, let alone stayed. Those last years, I saved his life about ten to 12 times.”
SOURCE / SOURCE
Source: Read Full Article
