‘He’s F------ Hitler’: Lisa Marie Presley’s Long-Lost Interview On Scientology Unearthed, Slams Leader David Miscavige For Preying On Elvis’ $100 Million Fortune
Jan. 30 2023, Published 6:45 p.m. ET
Lisa Marie Presley got candid about leaving the Church of Scientology, comparing the religious group's leader to Adolf Hilter in an unearthed interview years before her death, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Presley, who died after suffering cardiac arrest earlier this month, joined the church with her mother, Priscilla, after her father, Elvis Presley, died in 1977. Elvis had allegedly been approached by the church before but he always steered clear of Scientology, claiming they only wanted him for his fame and money.
According to Lisa Marie, her dad was right — something she discovered years later when her former pal, Scientology leader David Miscavige allegedly turned on her and those closest to him.
When asked about why she left the church in 2014, Elvis' only child promised, “It’s a f------ hell of a story. There’s so much to it." Speaking with Scientology critic Tony Ortega, Lisa Marie claimed, “Dave [Miscavige] was a good friend of mine. Now he’s f------ Hitler.”
She said her first inkling that something wasn't right came after her mentor, Debbie Cook, who was the captain of the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida, began having trouble with the church.
Cook protested Miscavige's leadership in an email she sent thousands of Scientology members in 2012. The church ended up suing her and paid her a settlement to end the legal battle — only after she took the witness stand and described the horrors of Miscavige's makeshift prison called "The Hole," which he allegedly created for disobeying Sea Org executives.
“I loved Debbie. And what happened to her really wrecked me," Lisa Marie told Ortega.
The singer said everything began to change when she turned 25 years old. That's the age she qualified to get her inheritance from Elvis' estate. "At 25, after I got the inheritance, they started grooming me to be this person who would go out and get everyone else in," Lisa Marie insisted, which allegedly included her second husband, Michael Jackson.
She claimed Scientology wanted her to recruit Michael into the church despite his Jehovah’s Witnesses background. “But then they realized he was getting too much bad press,” Lisa Marie said in the interview, insisting the church changed its mind about Jackson when he was linked to child molestation allegations.
She also alleged that Scientology pressured her to divorce the King of Pop in 1996.
"I was in love with Michael, believe it or not. I didn’t want to leave him. He was in trouble and I wanted to help him. And they made sure that I left him,” she told Ortega, adding that “DM [David Miscavige] facilitated my divorce with MJ."
“DM [David Miscavige] facilitated my divorce with MJ,” she said, claiming that Miscavige and a Scientologist attorney, John P. Coale, pressured her to file for divorce.
“One morning I got a call from John Coale [Scientology attorney]. He said, ‘Michael’s going to make a move. He’s going to file.’ So I filed.” Lisa Marie later regretted it, revealing the incident opened her eyes even more about the church's alleged corruption.
“While I was beginning to realize how f----- up everything was, and how many criminals there were, I had dinner with him [David] at Nobu four years ago in London. Listening to him talk about how great Scientology was doing was like hearing Hitler talking about how he has chimneys and smoke coming out of everywhere. All he could talk about was Tom or buildings. A four-hour dinner," she claimed in the interview.
After actress Leah Remini left the church and began her crusade to tear it down, Miscavige stopped talking to her, Lisa Marie alleged.
“My mom is still friends with [a Scientology attorney who] told her that Dave is so paranoid now, nobody sees him.Nobody sees him. He’s going into an underground bunker period,” she said years ago.
Lisa Marie began researching more about "The Hole" and making friends with former members that either left the church or appeared to still be in good standing, who told her the horror stories of what those outside of Scientology had heard about the religion.
“No way, that’s not why I joined this,” she remembered thinking after collecting more intel.
Things came to a head in October 2014 after she tried to confront Miscavige over explosive allegations about his own father. Instead, she was reportedly met by his angry daughters. However, a representative for Scientology told RadarOnline.com the incident never happened.
"That’s a bald-faced lie by those seeking to exploit this tragic event. It never happened—PERIOD," the rep said in a statement.
“I just know that I started to self-destruct because this thing [Scientology] is corrupt. I needed closure," Lisa Marie told Ortega. She said she spotted a camera at the facility and believed Miscavige was watching her so she spoke to it directly.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Are you throwing everyone in The Hole? You just made the biggest mistake of your life, you just broke up your own family,” she recalled screaming into the camera. “Somebody needs to stop you.”
She claimed that when Miscavige's daughters came in, all hell broke loose and she "couldn’t get a word in edgewise."
Lisa Marie decided then and there that she was leaving the church. She said her mother Priscilla and daughter Riley left Scientology with her.
"I’m a suppressive person, and I’m the reason my dad died and MJ died. That’s what’s being said inside Scientology," she stated.
Sadly, Lisa Marie died unexpectedly on January 12, 2023. She was only 54 years old. Elvis' only child was buried at Graceland in Memphis with her dad, her grandparents, and her late son, Benjamin, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2020.