Riley Keough—granddaughter of Elvis Presley and daughter of Lisa Marie Presley, who passed away in January after suffering a cardiac arrest—has given her first interview since the news broke last Friday that she was named the sole trustee of her mother’s estate, bringing an end to a contentious legal battle between members of the famous family.
“When my mom passed, there was a lot of chaos in every aspect of our lives,” Keough told Vanity Fair in an interview published Tuesday. “Everything felt like the carpet had been ripped out and the floor had melted from under us. Everyone was in a bit of a panic to understand how we move forward, and it just took a minute to understand the details of the situation, because it’s complicated. We are a family, but there’s also a huge business side of our family. So I think that there was clarity that needed to be had.”
Keough has also reached a settlement with her grandmother, Priscilla Presley, who earlier this year filed a petition to challenge the validity of Lisa Marie’s will. The will named Keough and Lisa Marie’s 14-year-old twin daughters, Harper and Finley, as the sole beneficiaries of her estate, which is reportedly worth multiple millions of dollars.
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Priscilla was previously named as a trustee of her daughter’s will, but in 2016, Lisa Marie made an amendment that removed her mother and former business manager as trustees.
As the sole trustee of her mother’s estate, Keough will assume ownership of Graceland, Elvis’ iconic Memphis home, which Priscilla converted into a highly lucrative tourist attraction after the singer passed away in 1977.
Per the agreement, Priscilla will receive a monthly payment as an adviser to the trust, and will also be permitted to be buried at Graceland.
“I don’t know why she wouldn’t be buried at Graceland,” Keough told Vanity Fair. “I don’t understand what the drama in the news was about. Yeah. If she wants to be, of course. I always had positive and beautiful memories and association with Graceland. Now, a lot of my family’s buried there, so it’s a place of great sadness at this point in my life.”
When asked about the current status of her relationship with Priscilla, the Daisy Jones & the Six actress said that while an answer could be a “20-minute conversation,” things between the two of them will ultimately “be how it was.”
“Things with Grandma will be happy,” Keough told Vanity Fair. “They’ve never not been happy. There was a bit of upheaval, but now everything’s going to be how it was. She’s a beautiful woman, and she was a huge part of creating my grandfather’s legacy and Graceland. It’s very important to her. He was the love of her life. Anything that would suggest otherwise in the press makes me sad because, at the end of the day, all she wants is to love and protect Graceland and the Presley family and the legacy. That’s her whole life. So it’s a big responsibility she has tried to take on. None of that stuff has really ever been a part of our relationship prior. She’s just been my grandma.”
