Rishika Shahi
In a heartbreaking revelation, Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, opens up about her struggle with opioid addiction in her posthumous memoir, “From Here to the Great Unknown.” The book, completed by her daughter Riley Keough after Presley’s untimely death in 2023, provides a raw and honest account of the singer-songwriter’s journey with substance abuse.
A Prescription Gone Wrong
Presley’s addiction began after the birth of her twin daughters in 2008, when she was prescribed opioids for pain relief. “For a couple of years it was recreational and then it wasn’t,” she writes in the book, excerpted exclusively in this week’s PEOPLE cover story. “It was an absolute matter of addiction, withdrawal in the big leagues.”
“You may read this and wonder how, after losing people close to me, I also fell prey to opioids,” she wrote. “I was recovering after the birth of my daughters, Vivienne and Finley, when a doctor prescribed me opioids for pain. It only took a short-term prescription of opioids in the hospital for me to feel the need to keep taking them.”
Addiction was not unfamiliar territory for Presley. Her father, Elvis Presley, and her ex-husband Michael Jackson both passed away due to complications from drug use. In the foreword for Harry Nelson’s 2019 book “The United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain,” Presley revealed that she had also experimented with drugs during her teenage years.
Daughter’s Bittersweet Journey
To complete the memoir, Riley Keough listened to the taped memories her mother had recorded. In the introduction, Keough describes the process as “incredibly difficult,” especially the chapters about her mother’s addiction and her own brother Benjamin’s suicide in 2020, which was also linked to substance abuse struggles.
Despite the heartbreak, Presley’s memoir aims to provide hope and connection to those battling addiction. “I hope that in an extraordinary circumstance, people relate to a very human experience of love, heartbreak, loss, addiction and family,” Keough tells PEOPLE. “Her hope with this book was just human connection. So that’s mine.”
Ending the Stigma
Presley’s openness about her addiction is a testament to her desire to end the stigma surrounding substance abuse. “It is time for us to say goodbye to shame about addiction,” she wrote in the foreword for “The United States of Opioids.” “We have to stop blaming and judging ourselves and the people around us… That starts with sharing our stories.”
Through her music and her advocacy, Lisa Marie Presley left an indelible mark on the world. Her memoir serves as a powerful reminder of the strength and resilience required to overcome addiction, and the importance of supporting those struggling with substance abuse. As Keough puts it, “Each of those strands, beautiful and broken, forged together in early trauma, crashing together at the end of her life.”
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