Category: Riley Keough

Riley Keough covers the latest issue of Vanity Fair. The interview was conducted before the strikes, and it was conducted after Riley and her grandmother worked out the legal issues over Lisa Marie Presley’s estate. Within a three-year period, Riley lost her brother and mother, she became a mother and she became the sole trustee of her mother’s complicated estate. She’s also one of three heiresses to Elvis Presley’s life and legacy, alongside her half-sisters Harper and Finley. Riley discussed all of this and more in what was a very moving interview. Like, it’s remarkable that Riley is just so grounded and, frankly, normal. She was a little bit of a wild-child, but mostly she’s just a suburban mom who has a lot of jobs. She also reveals her daughter’s name: Tupelo Storm Smith-Petersen. Some highlights from VF:

She asked VF to come to Switzerland, where she was having treatment: “I have Lyme disease. I used this little break that I have to come and try and see if I can alleviate it a bit. It’s a holistic treatment center and offers all kinds of things that you can’t really do in America yet, like cleaning your blood.”

She’s a workaholic & she doesn’t know where she got her work ethic: “This is my first break in a lot of years. I’m a workaholic.” I ask where she thinks she got her work ethic from. “Not from my parents. Not from anyone in my family. I came out of the womb like that. I think we’re half nature, half nurture. I was naturally somebody that was very punctual and hardworking and wanted to do things. My upbringing was very different to that. It was very no-schedule: Sometimes we go to school, sometimes we don’t. That was what I was used to, so I was living out my teen and childhood years as though that was what I wanted. I’m definitely an adventurous and spontaneous person, but I thrive on routine. My parents said when I was little, I was very much trying to organize things and make things happen.”

An American girl: Keough’s father is Irish and Ashkenazi Jewish. Her mother was Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, Indigenous, and “very hillbilly.” As for herself, Keough says, “I’m an American girl.”

Living in Neverland when her mom married Michael Jackson: “My whole childhood was probably very extreme. In hindsight, I can see how crazy these things would be to somebody from the outside. But when you’re living in them, it’s just your life and your family. You just remember the love, and I had real love for Michael.” I point out the surreal fact that Keough has called both Graceland and Neverland home. “Which one did I like better? I spent more time at Neverland than Graceland, to be honest. That was a real home, whereas Graceland was a museum in my lifetime.”

She’s not wild anymore: “I don’t think the wildness exists in the same way now. I don’t really drink anymore, but definitely in my late teens into my mid-20s, I was an adventurer. Now I’m a bit of a granny.”

Falling for Ben Smith-Petersen in 2013: “I remember it so vividly, I just knew that we were going to have kids. It was, in hindsight, very strange. I didn’t know how we’d get there, but we did.”

Her daughter: Tupelo Storm Smith-Petersen arrived via surrogate in August 2022. Keough says of surrogacy, “I think it’s a very cool, selfless, and incredible act that these women do to help other people. I can carry children, but it felt like the best choice for what I had going on physically with the autoimmune stuff.” As for her daughter’s name: Tupelo, of course, was the King of Rock and Roll’s birthplace in Mississippi.

On Priscilla challenging Lisa Marie’s will: “When my mom passed, there was a lot of chaos in every aspect of our lives. Everything felt like the carpet had been ripped out and the floor had melted from under us. Everyone was in a bit of a panic to understand how we move forward, and it just took a minute to understand the details of the situation, because it’s complicated. We are a family, but there’s also a huge business side of our family. So I think that there was clarity that needed to be had. Things with Grandma will be happy. They’ve never not been happy.”

When she last saw her mother: Keough saw her mother at a party for Elvis a day after the Golden Globes this year. “We had dinner. That was the last time I saw her. I remember thinking about how beautiful she looked, and that was my strongest memory of the dinner.” When Keough addresses the accumulated tragedies head-on, the sentences come in pieces: “I have been through a great deal of pain and I’ve had my.… Parts of me have died and I’ve felt like my heart has exploded, but I also feel.… I’m trying to think of how to phrase this.… I have strengthened the qualities that have come about through adversity.”

[From Vanity Fair]

She isn’t shady or insulting about Priscilla at all, and she even gives Priscilla a lot of credit for what she did with the Presley estate and all of that. But there is still some drama there, and my takeaway is that Riley did not appreciate the fact that Priscilla marched into court right away to challenge LM’s will, and Riley hated that it all spilled out into the public sphere. But there’s conciliation there too. As for Riley’s grief… heartbreaking. She’s really been through it. I hope Riley, Ben and baby Tupelo find their peace.

Photos courtesy of Vanity Fair.

When Lisa Marie Presley passed away earlier this year, she was survived by her three daughters and heiresses, Riley Keough and twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, who are still minors. Lisa Marie always made it clear that she wanted Riley to take over her estate and deal with the web of financial dramas set up by Priscilla Presley. Lisa Marie’s body was barely cold when Priscilla marched into court and tried to invalidate LM’s will and block Riley from taking over her mother’s estate. What followed was several months of legal shenanigans. Everything seemingly ended in June, when Riley gave her grandmother a one-time lump sum payment of about $1.4 million and Priscilla dropped her attempts to invalidate the will. It felt like Graceland – Elvis’s former mansion, now a massive tourist attraction – was still going to be under Priscilla’s purview in some way, but as it turns out, not so much. Riley now owns everything from her mother’s estate.

Riley Keough, the grandchild of Elvis Presley, today was named the sole trustee of the estate of her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley. The appointment was approved during a hearing Friday before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lynn Healey Scaduto.

Priscilla Presley had filed a petition to challenge the validity of her late daughter Lisa Marie’s will in January. The legal action disputed a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s will that excised Priscilla as trustee of the estate. Priscilla Presley’s attorneys said she only became aware of the “purported 2016 amendment” after Lisa Marie’s death. Lawyers also contend the amendment was never delivered to their client during Lisa Marie’s lifetime. The amendment removes Priscilla and Lisa Marie’s former business manager, Barry Siegel, as co-trustees and replaces them with Lisa Marie’s eldest children Riley and Benjamin Keough. The latter died in 2020.

The Daisy Jones & the Six star filed a 73-page petition on June 12 in support of her bid for the appointment to head what the family has dubbed the Promenade Trust. Keough had earlier reached a settlement agreement with Priscilla Presley and Michael Lockwood, the guardian ad litem for her two younger half-siblings, 14-year-old twins Harper and Finley Lockwood. Lockwood was Lisa Marie’s fourth husband before they divorced.

The 34-year-old Keough, whose real name is Danielle Riley Keough, also will preside over the sub-trusts for her half-sisters. Priscilla Presley will be a special adviser to the trust and receive a monthly payment for her role. Priscilla Presley also will be allowed to be buried at Graceland, the Memphis, Tennessee former home of Elvis Presley, which Keough will now own.

[From Deadline]

All of this makes Riley the sole owner and guardian of Graceland. I’m surprised by the news that Riley reached an agreement with Michael Lockwood as well – Lisa Marie and Lockwood were engaged in a long-running custodial battle over Harper and Finley. I suspect that Riley is simply a good person with great lawyers – she never seemed to “go to the mattresses” with her grandmother or Lockwood. She dealt with everything privately and quietly and she walked away with all of the power. And, I mean, this is actually what Lisa Marie wanted – she wanted Riley to inherit everything, despite what Priscilla claims now. I feel so sorry for Riley though – she gave birth to her daughter late last year, then she was deeply grieving for her mom, and dealing with all of this family and financial drama.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.