Priscilla Presley has launched a legal challenge against the validity of her daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s will, filing a lawsuit in Los Angeles superior court. The dispute centres on a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s living trust that removed Priscilla as a trustee and replaced her with Lisa Marie’s children, Riley and Benjamin Keough.
Priscilla’s lawyers argue that the amendment is invalid for several reasons: Priscilla was not notified of the changes despite the trust requiring it; her name was misspelled in the document; and the amendment was not witnessed or notarised. They also claim that Lisa Marie’s signature on the amendment appears atypical. The filing asks a judge to declare the amendment void and revert the trust to its 2010 version, which named Priscilla and Lisa Marie’s former business manager, Barry Siegel, as trustees.
The legal manoeuvre comes weeks after Lisa Marie died on 12 January at the age of 54 from cardiac arrest. She was buried at Graceland, the Memphis mansion inherited from her father, Elvis Presley. Lisa Marie inherited an estate valued at $100m upon turning 25 in 1993, but by 2018 she claimed in a lawsuit that she was down to just $14,000, blaming Siegel for mismanagement. Siegel countersued, alleging she had squandered her fortune.
Priscilla, 77, and Riley Keough, 33, are now expected to oversee the estate if the amendment is overturned, as Siegel intended to resign. Lisa Marie is survived by three children: Riley and 14-year-old twin daughters with her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood. A custody and financial dispute with Lockwood was ongoing at the time of her death.
The value of Lisa Marie’s estate remains unclear. Graceland itself, which attracts over 600,000 visitors annually, was retained by Lisa Marie after she sold a majority stake in the estate’s business shares in 2005. The legal battle adds further complexity to a family already grieving, with Priscilla recently describing the period as “a very difficult time” in a public statement.
