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A newly released memoir by Lisa Marie Presley sheds light on how she coped with the tragic loss of her son, Benjamin Keough, in 2020.

In From Here to the Great Unknown, Presley reveals a deeply personal and unconventional approach to grieving. She kept Benjamin’s body on dry ice for two months at her Los Angeles home after his suicide at age 27.

“My house has a separate casitas bedroom, and I kept Ben Ben in there for two months,” Presley wrote in the book, according to NBC News. “There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately.”

This unusual practice, it turns out, was inspired by her family’s experience following the death of her father, the iconic Elvis Presley, in 1977.

“I found a very empathic funeral home owner. I told her that 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,” she wrote. “She said, ‘We’ll bring Ben Ben to you. You can have him there.’”

Presley acknowledged the unconventional nature of her decision, stating, “I think it would scare the living fucking piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that. But not me.”

Sadly, Lisa Marie Presley passed away at 54 before completing her memoir. Her daughter, actor Riley Keough, stepped in to finish the book using audio recordings left by her mother.

Keough, known for her role in Mad Max: Fury Road, shared her perspective on her mother’s choice. She wrote that keeping Benjamin’s body at home allowed the family “ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she’d done with her dad.”

“And I would go and sit in there with him,” Keough added, offering a glimpse into their grieving process.

A turning point came when both mother and daughter decided to get tattoos similar to one Benjamin had on his collarbone. In a surreal moment, Presley invited the tattoo artist to their home to see Benjamin’s tattoos up close.

“I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five,” Riley Keough wrote. “Soon after that, we all kind of got this vibe from my brother that he didn’t want his body in this house anymore.”

Today, both Benjamin Keough and Lisa Marie Presley rest at Graceland, Elvis Presley’s famous estate in Memphis, Tennessee.

From Here to the Great Unknown, published this week, offers more intriguing revelations about Lisa Marie Presley’s life. In one surprising anecdote, she discusses her 1994 marriage to Michael Jackson. According to Presley, the then 35-year-old King of Pop claimed to be a virgin before their wedding.

This memoir provides pop culture fans with a raw, honest look into the Presley family’s experiences with loss, love, and the unique challenges of living in the public eye.

She reflected, “I think he had kissed Tatum O’Neal, and he’d had a thing with Brooke Shields, which hadn’t been physical apart from a kiss,” sharing her understanding candidly.

Last update on 2024-10-08 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API