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Riley Keough experienced the pain of losing her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, on January 12, 2023. With the anniversary of Lisa Marie’s passing approaching, Riley recently sat down with Drew Barrymore, sharing some insights from her relationship with her mother. The actress, who completed her memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, released on October 8, 2024, spoke about Lisa Marie’s intuitive nature, which she seemingly passed down. Just as her mom sensed her father Elvis’ passing, Riley knew when her mother was leaving.
Lisa Marie, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, was only nine when her father passed away. Barrymore recalled that Lisa Marie seemed to sense Elvis’ passing, asking Riley, “She knew, it seemed when your grandfather was going to pass away. She felt a premonition. Now, was that the fear of, ‘I don’t... have limited time with this person,’ or was it a psychic connection?'"
I’m apprehensive to say this because the headlines can be crazy, but she did have like a thing where she felt connected to… she was very intuitive,” Riley responded. “And in a way that wasn’t like woo-woo, or, you know, in the clouds—it was very kind of grounded and matter-of-fact. And it was pretty incredible.”
Reflecting on her own experience, Riley shared that she felt a similar intuition when her mother passed. She was on an airplane, trying to reach her mom, texting her dad, musician Danny Keough when she sensed that “her mom was departing earth,” as Barrymore described it. “I did, yeah. I just had a feeling. I don’t know. There had been incidents before—health incidents—and I didn’t have the same feeling. Like, I just, I don’t know. I felt this sort of surrender in the moment, and yeah, I just had a little bit of a sense,” she said.
Riley even texted her dad to ask if she was gone, and he replied, "Yes 2 or 3 minutes ago."
Lisa Marie's death followed years of drug use, a theme in the book. Looking back on her mother's life after losing Elvis, Riley added, “I think she was a little bit lost and trying to figure out her direction after she lost her father... I think that was a lot of her childhood and her teen years... until she met my father and kind of decided to have children and get married.”
Riley also reflected on the unique challenges her mother faced. “I do think she carried a lot of, sort of, you know, pain and resentment for different things, but she had such a different experience than I did and a much more intense childhood, and she was in the spotlight in this way that was kind of very unique.”