Riley Keough Reflects on the Presley Family Curse, Being the Sole Heir of Graceland

There is no Presley family curse, according to Riley Keough — just a series of tragic but «common» events examined under a harsh spotlight.

At the Los Angeles stop of her book tour for From Here to the Great Unknown — her late mom Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir, which Keough finished after her sudden death last year — the actress, 35, addressed the so-called “curse,” a title assigned to the perceived misfortune that has plagued the famous family.

«I get asked a lot on this book tour, ‘How did I avoid the curse of the Presleys?’ And it’s such a weird question,” the granddaughter of Elvis Presley told moderator and fellow author Taylor Jenkins Reid at the Nov. 18 event.

It’s «weird,» the Daisy Jones & The Six star explained, because “I think the word ‘curse’ is used because my family are looked at as this not real mythology or something, but really it’s just very common things, like addiction.”

“Everyone in here has loved somebody with addiction issues or has lost somebody tragically,” she continued. “I mean, the hope is that the future generations of our family aren’t going to struggle so much with addiction. Of course, that’s the dream.”

The “curse” refers to the string of tragedies that has affected the Presley family throughout the years, including the death of Elvis’ twin brother Jessie, who was stillborn, and the death of Keough’s beloved brother, Benjamin Presley, who died by suicide in 2020.

Following the death of her mom in January 2023 and a highly publicized legal back-and-forth with her grandmother, Priscilla Presley, Keough became the sole heir of her grandfather’s iconic home, Graceland. He had previously gifted it to Lisa Marie — his only child — when he died in 1977.

After Jenkins Reid asked what it’s like to step into this new role, Keough joked that it’s “fun” before revealing that it’s not as daunting as it seems, because she was actually already “very involved” in the affairs of the iconic residence.

‘It’s funny because I spent a lot of my life and career actually living in a world where that wasn’t at the forefront,” she said, adding that “it was very different” after Lisa Marie’s death.

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«There was a lot of attention on it and me, but prior to that, it was something I was very involved in,” she continued. “And my mom was very … if there were things with the estate, whatever we were, I was very involved in it already. So it wasn’t like, ‘Whoa, what is this new thing?’ My mom would come to me with everything.”

Her involvement, Keough clarified, began when she was in her 20s, noting that Lisa Marie often sought her help and «opinions on things.”

And, after Jenkins Reid pointed out that there was “probably always an understanding” that Graceland would be hers to manage “one day,” the Under the Bridge actress said, “Or all of ours.”

“So there was that awareness and it was something that I was familiar with,” she explained. “That wasn’t a new thing basically, I would say — but I’d say the attention on it was new.”