In her new book, Priscilla Presley reveals that late ex-husband Elvis Presley asked if she wanted an abortion during her pregnancy with their only child, Lisa Marie Presley.
“Our wedding had meant I could finally come out in the open. I was so excited,” Priscilla, 80, writes in her upcoming memoir, Softly As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, according to Page Six. “But when I got pregnant on my wedding night, those dreams fell apart.”
Priscilla met Elvis when she was 14. The pair didn’t get married until 1967, years after they first crossed paths.
“Neither Elvis nor I was ready for a child,” the book — set to be released on Tuesday, September 23 — reads. Priscilla writes that she and Elvis “worried in silence” about their future, amid her pregnancy.
“At my lowest point, I even wondered how I’d feel if I had an accident and miscarried,” she admits. “I felt so guilty that I was even having these thoughts.”
Priscilla recalls Elvis asking “if I wanted to have an abortion” to terminate the pregnancy.
“He told me he’d support whatever I wanted. His words were a wake-up call,” she writes. “The enormity of it hit me head-on, and I began to cry. I told him, ‘No! We can’t do that. This is our baby!’”
Lisa Marie was born in February 1968.
Priscilla stayed with Elvis until Lisa Marie was 4 years old. Their divorce was finalized in October 1973, and they stayed close until the musician’s death in August 1977.
“As difficult as it was, I never regretted my decision to leave Elvis,” Priscilla writes in the book, according to Page Six. “But I never ceased to mourn it.”
The publication reported that Priscilla’s memoir will also detail her life parenting Lisa Marie after Elvis’ death. (Priscilla is also the mother of son Navarone Garibaldi, whom she shares with ex Marco Garibaldi.)
Lisa Marie died at age 54 in January 2023 after a cardiac arrest caused by a small bowel obstruction.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla shared in a statement at the time. “She was the most passionate strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers. At this time there will be no further comment.”
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