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The true story of Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley’s relationship

Priscilla Presley first encountered Elvis when she was 11, listening to his first record. “Three years later and 5,500 miles away I would meet him," she later wrote.

Priscilla Presley is sharing why she never remarried after divorcing Elvis Presley.

The King of Rock and Roll and Priscilla Presley, formerly Beaulieu and Wagner, met for the first time in 1959 and were married for six years, from 1967 to 1973.

“I just don’t think that he could handle that,” she said during a Q&A event in Las Vegas, per People, about getting married again while Elvis Presley was still alive. “To be honest with you, I never wanted to marry after him. I never had any desire. No one could ever match him.”

Now, Elvis and Priscilla Presley's relationship has made it to the big screen once again.

First came the 2022 biopic "Elvis," where director Baz Luhrmann unpacked the rock 'n' roll legend's legacy, from his musical coming-of-age to the pivotal relationships in his life. Austin Butler starred in the titular role alongside Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla.

Three generations of Presleys attended the movie’s premiere at Graceland in June 2022 — proof of his longstanding legacy and of his lifelong connection to Priscilla Presley. 

Now, director Sofia Coppola has released her take on the couple's marriage in "Priscilla," which focuses on how the relationship shaped Priscilla Presley's life in particular. Cailee Spaeny stars in the leading role, with Jacob Elordi taking on the king of rock 'n' roll. "Priscilla" is now in theaters.

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Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi star as Priscilla and Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola's film, "Priscilla."A24

Elordi spoke with TODAY's Hoda Kotb in October about his experience watching the film with Priscilla Presley herself.

“Watching the film with Priscilla in Venice (at the Venice Film Festival) was just entirely surreal and watching her watch her life through her eyes played back to her,” Elordi said.

“It felt kind of invasive, so I just sort of sat there like a little stiff,” he added.

Forty-five years after the rock 'n' roll star's death in 1977 at the age of 42, Elvis and Priscilla’s love story is continuing to be told.

“It was a good life,” Priscilla told People of their romance in 2021. “It was different, but it was ours.”

Keep reading for Elvis and Priscilla’s relationship timeline — in their own words.

Priscilla Presley & Elvis Presley in Hawaii, California (Photo by Magma Agency/WireImage)
Priscilla Presley & Elvis Presley in Hawaii, California (Photo by Magma Agency/WireImage)WireImage / Getty Images

Priscilla and Elvis met in 1959, when Priscilla was in high school

Priscilla and Elvis' story begins before they actually met. At the time, he was the biggest rock star in the world, and she was an 11-year-old listening to his first record at an Air Force base in Austin, Texas.

"Three years later and 5,500 miles away I would meet him," Priscilla wrote in an essay for People in 1985.

Priscilla and Elvis reportedly met in 1959 at a party in West Germany. How did the two Americans end up at a party in Wiesbaden? Well, Priscilla's stepfather, who was in the Air Force, was transferred to the base there, and Elvis was serving in the Army.

Their age gap was pronounced, which Priscilla touched on in her essay. "When we met, I was an impressionable 14-year-old. He was 24," she said. According to Priscilla, when he found out she was in ninth grade, he responded, “Why, you’re just a baby.”

Priscilla also spoke about her early memories of Elvis with TODAY's Jenna Bush Hager in 2017.

“It started out really with his voice,” she said. “People loved his voice. When he sang, it was like he was singing to you.” (In Luhrmann's film, Butler’s voice was blended with the real Presley’s for many of the songs).

“He wasn’t bad to look at either,” she added. “Everyone had a crush on him. They’re still having crushes on him. He was truly beautiful. He woke up beautiful. I used to stare at him. I used to look at him and go, ‘Oh my gosh.’”

Speaking to Larry King in 1999, Priscilla contextualized the time in Elvis' life when they met. “I saw him at a very vulnerable time in his life. He had just lost his mother. He was grieving,” she said.

The two began seeing each other. “I found myself deeply involved with Elvis,” she wrote in her essay for People. Amid this relationship, Priscilla said school "became a chore."

"I kept telling myself that I would do better, that I’d catch up, but my concentration was totally on Elvis," she wrote.

Priscilla said he 'molded her' into being the 'right girl'

According to Priscilla's essay in People, Elvis said he liked "soft-spoken brunettes with blue eyes," and said Priscilla "fit this image perfectly."

Priscilla wrote he wanted to "mold (her) to his opinions and preferences" beyond her appearance.

"Something in his Southern upbringing had taught him that the 'right' girl was to be saved for marriage. I was that girl. At the same time, he molded me into his woman. I wore the clothes, hairstyle and makeup of his careful choosing," she continued.

Elvis won over Priscilla's parents

After their fourth date, Priscilla's parents intervened. Her father, Capt. Joseph Paul Beaulieu — whom her mother married after her biological father died — asked to meet him.

"You have women throwing themselves at you. Why my daughter?” she recalled her dad asking in her People essay. Elvis reportedly replied, "I happen to be very fond of her. She’s a lot more mature than her age and I enjoy her company ... You don’t have to worry about her, Captain. I’ll take good care of her.”

“He came to the house and he was charming and wonderful. My family had a lot of faith in him,” Priscilla told Barbara Walters for ABC in 1985.

Priscilla said that she was so smitten with the “Hound Dog” singer that she would start to misbehave if her parents tried to separate them from one another.

"My parents became confused and bewildered by our relationship. We tried to make them believe that it was proper and platonic, and they wanted to believe me,” she wrote. “Whenever they tried to stop us from seeing each other, I pleaded and cried and made them and myself miserable. In retrospect, I don’t think anything could have stopped me from seeing Elvis."

In 1960, Elvis returned to the United States. "I didn't hear from Elvis right away. My mother said, 'See, I told you,'" Priscilla recalled to Larry King in 1999. Then, Elvis started calling — "and that's when it all started again."

Three years after that, in 1963, Priscilla's parents allowed her to finish her education in Memphis, Tennessee, so that she could be closer to Elvis.

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Priscilla Presley on TODAY in 2019.NBC / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via

Elvis and Priscilla were married in Las Vegas

In 1967, Elvis and Priscilla got married in Las Vegas after he proposed to her the year before.

"One day he showed me the ring and simply asked me to marry him ... Even though we were perfectly content the way we were, at that time it wasn’t nice for people to live together," Priscilla told Ladies Home Journal in 1972.

The ceremony lasted eight minutes. Speaking to Walters in 1985, Priscilla said that the wedding was encouraged by Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis's talent manager.

"Presley's manger put the pressure to marry, and marry soon. We'd been together for six years," she said.

Elvis Presley cuts wedding cake with bride Priscilla Presley in May 1, 1967, in Las Vegas.
Elvis Presley cuts wedding cake with bride Priscilla Presley in May 1, 1967, in Las Vegas.Bettmann Archive / Getty Images

Elvis briefly left Priscilla when she was pregnant with Lisa Marie

Elvis and Priscilla's daughter and only child, Lisa Marie Presley, was born nine months after their wedding.

However, when Priscilla was still pregnant with their baby girl, Elvis told her that they needed to briefly separate because “he was going through some things.” 

She recalled their conversation in a 1985 as-told-to essay, per the Orlando Sentinel.

“I don’t think Elvis really intended to leave me. It wasn’t his style," she said. "I later realized he too had questions about how a baby would affect his life. Would his public accept him as a father? He wasn’t even sure whether his fans had adapted to his becoming a husband. How loyal would they be?” 

After Lisa Marie was born, Elvis reportedly stopped being intimate with Priscilla. Priscilla told Walters that she believed Elvis struggled to square his image of her as a "little girl" with her as a "mother."

“Our communication was horrible,” Priscilla told Walters, saying that Elvis didn’t feel comfortable showing weakness.

According to Country Living, she also wrote in her 1985 autobiography, "Elvis and Me," that Elvis once told her that "he had never been able to make love to a woman who had a child."

"I (was) beginning to doubt my own sexuality as a woman," she wrote. "My physical and emotional needs were unfulfilled."

Lisa-Marie Presley and Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley in 1970.
Lisa-Marie Presley and Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley in 1970.Redferns / Getty Images

Priscilla said she left Elvis to 'find Priscilla'

Priscilla left Elvis in 1972. "I had to take responsibility for myself," Priscilla told Walters. By leaving Elvis, she said she "found Priscilla."

She went on to become an actor best known for her time on the show "Dallas."

Years later, during a 2016 appearance on “Loose Women," Priscilla's feelings remained the same. “You obviously didn’t have your own life. You lived his life. You saw the movies he wanted to see. You listened to the music he listened to. You go to places he would go so you really kind of lost yourself. As a woman, I didn’t really know who I was,” she added.

In 2018, Priscilla —  while speaking to Mike Amor on Australia's Sunday Night in 2018 — revealed that Elvis had not been faithful during their marriage.

“He wasn’t faithful, not that he had someone special, but when you’re in the entertainment business there is always that and I tried to turn my back to that, but I just didn’t want to share him. Simple as that," she said. "As much as he wanted to be married and have a family, I don't know if he was ever cut to be married because I don't think he could ever be faithful to one woman."

Priscilla was 'shocked' by Elvis' death

Priscilla said that she and Elvis remained close even after their divorce was finalized in 1973. "We never lost our friendship," Priscilla said on the Sunday News.

In August 1977, Elvis died at his Graceland home from a heart attack at age 42. News of his sudden passing shocked Priscilla.

“It was just too hard to believe,” she told Hoda Kotb during a 2018 appearance on TODAY.

Priscilla noted that Elvis' funeral procession reminded her of how iconic the singer was.

"Going out the gates in the limo and seeing the streets lined up on both sides all the way to the cemetery. You’d see glimpses, you’d see people crying, hysterical, fainting, and that’s how impactful it was," she said on TODAY. "And still to this day, people come around the same time and they’re all there.”

After the official trailer for "Elvis" was released, Priscilla went on Instagram to share how she feels about the film.

She stated that she watched the trailer "over a dozen times" and was brought to tears when she heard how much her daughter loved the movie.

"I relived every moment in this film," she said. "It took me a few days to overcome the emotions as it did with Lisa. Beautifully done Baz, Tom, Austin and Olivia."

Priscilla attended the Golden Globes to celebrate "Elvis" with her daughter Lisa Marie, days before her death.

On Jan. 12, Lisa Marie, the sole child of Elvis and Priscilla, died at the age of 54 of a small bowel obstruction, the result of a surgery that she had undergone years before, according to her autopsy report.

Priscilla attends the premiere of 'Priscilla'

Cailee Spaeny and Priscilla Presley
Cailee Spaeny and Priscilla Presley at a red carpet for the movie "Priscilla" on Sept. 4 in Venice, Italy.Kristy Sparow / Getty Images

Priscilla attended the premiere of Coppola's film centered around her life at the Venice Film Festival in September. She sat next to Elordi and Spaeny, the 25-year-old actor tasked with portraying Priscilla.

Spaeny told TODAY.com what Priscilla said to her once the credits started rolling.

“She said, ‘That was a great performance.’ That was the first time I’d ever heard that from her,” Spaeny said.

Spaeny also recounted one of Priscilla's memories of her relationship with Elvis, shared during a meeting between actor and subject before filming began.

“There was one moment where she talked about how when she was there living in Memphis, they’d rent out movie theaters — it would be in the middle of the night and the town would be silent,” Spaeny said. “It was her and Elvis and his Memphis Mafia all together, watching films all night long, and then she’d have to get up in the morning and go to school.”

Spaeny went on to receive a seven-minute standing ovation in Venice, plus the festival’s Volpi Cup award for best actress for her work in the film.

CORRECTION (Nov. 3, 2023, 4:33 p.m.): An earlier version of this article misstated Priscilla Presley's maiden name as Beauliu Wagner. She was born Wagner and later took her stepfather's last name, Beaulieu.