Inside Lisa Marie Presley's Ghoulish Two Months Keeping her Suicide Victim Son's Body on Ice at Her Mansion: 'Guys, This Is Getting Weird…'
Oct. 31 2024, Published 4:30 p.m. ET
Lisa Marie Presley's life came crashing down around her following the death of her son.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the shocking lengths Presley took in order to deal with her only son Benjamin Keough's passing following his suicide.
In 2020, Ben took his own life at the family's mansion's in California, and Presley later revealed she kept the 27-year-old's body in dry ice for two months.
Presley made the startling confession in her memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, released posthumously following her own death in 2023 from a small bowel obstruction.
She wrote in her book: “There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately."
Presley's daughter, Riley Keough, finished the memoir for her famous mom after her death, and explained why her brother's body was kept in the home.
"It was really important for my mum to have ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she'd done with her dad," Riley wrote referring to her superstar father, Elvis.
When the King of Rock and Roll died in 1977, his open casket was kept in his Graceland estate in Memphis for two days before he was buried on the property.
In her memoir, Presley shared she "didn't know what to do with (her) grief", but that having her father's body in the house helped her.
She wrote: "Having my dad in the house after he died was incredibly helpful because I could go and spend time with him and talk to him."
Presley and her daughter spent time with Benjamin during the two months he was in the mansion, even agreeing they should get his name tattooed on them — Benjamin had their names tattooed on his body.
A tattooist was invited over to the residence in order to see the young man's body so they he could copy the font and positioning.
Riley explained in her mother's memoir that Presley lifted the coffin lid and "in the most matter-of-fact way imaginable" held up her son's hand so that the tattooist could view it.
She wrote: "Soon after that, we all kind of got this vibe from my brother that he didn't want his body in this house any more. He seemed to be saying, 'this is getting weird.'"
Family insiders told RadarOnline.com Presley refused to let go of her son, and when she did allow the body to be laid to rest, she decided she wanted to join him in the afterlife.
Psychologist Dr. Gilda Carle said: "She was in complete denial for the first two months he was gone. She acted as though having the body in the house meant he was still with her."
She added: "When people are in heavy grief over the death of a loved one, they want to go on in their life as though that person is still around."
While the the coroner determined Presley died of intestinal obstruction following previous gastric bypass surgery, her daughter had a different conclusion.
She said: "My mom physically died from the aftereffects of her surgery, but we all knew she died of a broken heart."
Presley was 54 years old at the time of her death.
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