Benjamin tragically took his own life aged just 27.
Priscilla Presley has shared the shattering way Lisa Marie found out her son had killed himself.
Benjamin, Lisa Marie’s son with her ex-husband Danny Keough, died aged 27 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was found by stunned authorities at the family home in Calabasas, California, on July 12, 2020. At the time, his family said they were “devastated” by the news.
Following Benjamin’s death, Lisa Marie made the decision to keep his body at their family home, on dry ice, in order to be “in control” as the world was at the time gripped by the coronavirus pandemic. Riley Keough said that Lisa didn’t want others to have access to his body so they couldn’t “mess with it.”
Now, in her bombshell memoir Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, Priscilla has opened up about how the family became aware of the shattering news. During the summer of 2020, the family had moved into the Beverly Hills Hotel as Lisa had become ill due to allergies at home.
But Benjamin was splitting his time between the lavish hotel and the family home, so he could see his girlfriend, Diana Pinto. On July 12, they gathered for Diana’s birthday, and the party continued through until the early hours. But according to Priscilla, recollections may vary regarding what followed.
Lisa was asleep when her son took his own life. Her daughter, Riley, had to travel to the Beverly Hills Hotel to inform her.
Benjamin was tragically found in the bathroom of his home in Calabasas. Some claim that Ben and Diana argued before he headed off to a bathroom, while some claimed he went to grab a beer but didn’t return. In her memoir, Priscilla writes that a woman allegedly yelled: “Don’t do it!” before a gunshot was heard. But what is clear – when Ben’s friends decided to break their way into the bathroom, they found his dead body, next to a gun.
It was Ben’s sister, Riley, who was first informed of the news. Lisa’s assistant had been at the party and wanted to share the news with the family before it was leaked on social media and to the press. However, she didn’t want to be the person to tell Lisa. Riley’s phone rang shortly after 5am.
“Your brother’s shot himself in the head!” Lisa’s assistant allegedly repeatedly told Riley. She made the decision to head directly to the Beverly Hills Hotel to share the news with Lisa, as well as phoning her dad, Danny, and Priscilla to inform them. “All I could think about was Lisa; she would never recover from this. I didn’t see how she could outlive it,” Priscilla penned.
She went on to explain that after Benjamin’s body had been taken away for an autopsy, the authorities ruled that it was suicide and the investigation was rapidly brought to a close. “One of the most difficult things about being a celebrity is sharing your grief with the public,” she added.
At the time, Lisa’s manager said on behalf of the late singer: “She is completely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated but trying to stay strong for her 11-year-old twins and her oldest daughter Riley. She adored that boy. He was the love of her life.”
At his last public appearance before his death, he was joined by his family at the 40th anniversary of Elvis’ death, during a vigil held at Graceland. Lisa Marie enlisted the help of a compassionate funeral director to get Benjamin’s body to her house and had to keep the room where he was kept at 55 degrees, and she felt “fortunate” to be able to continue to care for him while she decided on whether his final resting place should be the family’s Graceland estate or in Hawaii.
Lisa Marie wrote in her own memoir, released after her death: “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.”
Leave a Reply