1993-2000 Lisa Marie Presley

LMP, Marie Claire – August 2007


“You want to know the best thing and the worst thing about me?” she says later. “I see things as they really are. People really bullshit themselves. I don’t like any filter or rainbows or fluff. And sometimes it is a blessing. And sometimes it makes me the biggest fucking pain in the ass ever. Because people don’t want to see that.”

[…]

“We’re all going to screw up,” Presley says. “The important thing is, do you learn from it and not do it again? Can you make it better in the future? Can you change? Because, Lord knows, I’ve fucked up many, many times.”

What was the worst time?

“My biggest mistake? Let’s see,” she begins quietly. “How can I word this? Um. Well. Leaving my first marriage, for the person that I left it for — that was probably the biggest mistake of my life.”

She is referring, of course, to Michael Jackson, a man whose name she, consciously or not, avoids saying aloud. This is understandable. The lunacy of the 1994 pairing exploded the celebrity Richter scale. There was the strained Diane Sawyer interview, the rumor that Jackson was only in the relationship for her dad’s song catalog, the awkward “kiss” on the MTV Video Music Awards. Presley, poignantly, was not in on the joke.

“I was really naive at the time. I was in la-la land.” She grimaces slightly, pushes some fallen hair from her forehead, then lets it all go.

“I had been really sheltered. I got married the first time very, very young. And the marriage I was in, there was so much resentment about who I was, because I had more than he did, and it became a power struggle. It is hard for a man to be with a woman who is stronger, wealthier. So in my mind I’m thinking, I know, I’ll get with someone more compatible. I wasn’t thinking what everyone else was thinking, which was that I must have been out of my fucking mind.”

Was she?

She pauses, smiles.

“I was just in a bubble. And able to be snowed. I hadn’t been bitten by the snake of life yet. I grew up after that. I had to.”

But not completely. After Jackson, Presley married the quirky, moody actor Nic Cage. It was a fiery pairing along the lines of Burton and Taylor, complete with frequent fights and pricey jewelry hurled into the open sea.

“Marrying him was a wild flurry, a crazy idea and being young, and ‘Ahhhh!’” Presley says, chuckling, glancing at her brilliant metallic fingernails, searching for chips.

“I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I’ve chased all the crazies down,” she says with conviction. “I was ready to stop the madness. At this age, I really appreciate having [a husband who is] a best friend. But you know, the other guys were fun. For a while.”

Lisa Marie reportedly calls Michael to get closure on their relationship, May, 2008


Another relative adds: ‘Lisa Marie has always been tough. She used to scare poor Michael Jackson half to death when he was married to her [from 1994 to 1996] because she wouldn’t take any rubbish from him.

‘She would tell him to “grow up or get out”. He’d just burst into tears. Then she would call him “a big cry baby”. He was the one who ended that marriage, she didn’t – but she was about to. In fact, she was real ticked off that he got to court first.’

It’s interesting that in the past year Lisa Marie has been striving for closure in her past marriages. ‘I truly think that’s part of her mid-life crisis,’ her friend says. ‘She has been determined to tie up loose ends.’

Lisa Marie and Danny Keough, her first husband, are now best friends. He’s the father of her two children. Their close relationship is something her current husband Michael didn’t understand when he married her.

‘Why is he always hanging around?’ Michael would ask. Lisa Marie’s answer? ‘Because he’s been around longer than you.’

‘She and Nicolas Cage, to whom she was only married a couple months, have also buried the hatchet,’ her friend says.

‘The missing link is Michael Jackson. She’d really like to have some closure with him, ask him some questions, find out what that marriage was all about in his head. Was he just using her for publicity? She really wants to know, even all these years later.’

Surprisingly enough, about a month ago Lisa Marie decided to track the fallen singing superstar down. She called him in Las Vegas, out of the blue. He was so surprised to hear from her, he couldn’t even speak. She did all the talking and got no answers – and no closure, either.

When she hung up, she said: ‘Well, he hasn’t changed much, that’s for sure. I guess that’s it for him until the next telephone call in 10 more years, if then.’

Lisa Marie Presley on her Myspace, Friday, June 26, 2009


He Knew.

Years ago Michael and I were having a deep conversation about life in general.

I can’t recall the exact subject matter but he may have been questioning me about the circumstances of my Fathers Death.

At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, “I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did.”

I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.

14 years later I am sitting here watching on the news an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the Cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears.

A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn’t predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened.

The person I failed to help is being transferred right now to the LA County Coroners office for his Autopsy.

All of my indifference and detachment that I worked so hard to achieve over the years has just gone into the bowels of hell and right now I am gutted.

I am going to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.

Our relationship was not “a sham” as is being reported in the press. It was an unusual relationship yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a “Normal life” found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part. Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.

I wanted to “save him” I wanted to save him from the inevitable which is what has just happened.

His family and his loved ones also wanted to save him from this as well but didn’t know how and this was 14 years ago. We all worried that this would be the outcome then.

At that time, In trying to save him, I almost lost myself.

He was an incredibly dynamic force and power that was not to be underestimated.

When he used it for something good, It was the best and when he used it for something bad, It was really, REALLY bad.

Mediocrity was not a concept that would even for a second enter Michael Jackson’s being or actions.

I became very ill and emotionally/ spiritually exhausted in my quest to save him from certain self-destructive behavior and from the awful vampires and leeches he would always manage to magnetize around him.

I was in over my head while trying.

I had my children to care for, I had to make a decision.

The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow.

After the Divorce, I spent a few years obsessing about him and what I could have done different, in regret.

Then I spent some angry years at the whole situation.

At some point, I truly became Indifferent, until now.

As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play The exact Scenario I saw happen on August 16th, 1977 happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted.

Any ill experience or words I have felt towards him in the past has just died inside of me along with him.

He was an amazing person and I am lucky to have gotten as close to him as I did and to have had the many experiences and years that we had together.

I desperately hope that he can be relieved from his pain, pressure and turmoil now.

He deserves to be free from all of that and I hope he is in a better place or will be.

I also hope that anyone else who feels they have failed to help him can be set free because he hopefully finally is.

The World is in shock but somehow he knew exactly how his fate would be played out some day more than anyone else knew, and he was right.

I really needed to say this right now, thanks for listening.

~LMP

Lisa Marie, Hello! October, 2009


But this past year has brought sorrow, too. Lisa Marie’s second marriage, to superstar Michael Jackson in 1994, may have been brief, but there was no doubting the depth of feeling they had for each other and she was devastated by his sudden death earlier this year.

Here, in a candid interview, the musician, who is currently working on a new album – her first in five years – talks about the tremendous support she had from her husband during that distressing time, how becoming a mum again has enriched her life and why she and her family would like to make the UK their permanent home…

[…]

You were in Europe when your former husband Michael Jackson died. How did it affect you?

There have been so many layers of grief in Michael’s death, so many different aspects and angles that have at times overwhelmed me, which I am still dealing with, to be honest.

I am incredibly fortunate that I have an amazing husband who has been unbelievably understanding and supportive throughout this process. He has cried with me, he has left me alone to cry if that’s what I needed. He has let me talk his ears off, he has listened while I talk others’ ears off, without annoyance or complaints. I have never met a more selfless and supportive person. That, along with the fact that I have been writing [songs] a lot and throughout, has helped.

Lisa Marie leaves club after hearing Michael’s music played, London Evening Standard, 14th October, 2009


Michael Jackson’s ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley was close to tears last night when one of his records was played while she was on the dance floor.

Elvis’s 41-year-old daughter, who was married to the Bad singer in 1994 for less than two years, was at Mahiki in Mayfair with her mum Priscilla for the Paul Smith store launch party.

Our spy told us: “Lisa Marie was having a great time with her friends. She was dancing away until Thriller was played.

“Without warning, she walked off the dance floor and went back to her seat and looked really upset.”

Lisa Marie contacts psychic about him on her birthday, 1, February 2010


Michael Jackson has spoken out from beyond the grave to Lisa Marie Presley ] in a spooky seance, according to the King of Pop’s former make-up artist.

Beautician Karen Faye and Jackson’s ex-wife Presley allegedly made contact with the singer, who died in June (09), with the help of a medium last week . Faye insists the Thriller icon’s spirit seemed to be “unsettled” and expressed remorse for any wrongdoing.

Faye says, “He seemed to be on a mission to reach out to people in his life and be forgiven. Michael spent his time explaining his faults and wanting us to forgive him. He seemed unsettled. He seemed more jovial with Lisa.” The psychic turned to me and said Michael is telling me, ‘You took such good care of me, and I am so sorry I hurt you so much.’ He said he should have listened to me more. It hit me straight in the heart.”

The 53 year old insists the psychic had “no idea” of her relationship with Jackson, adding, “There were definite, deep insights that would have been difficult (for a psychic) to make up. It was detailed about the inner dynamics of his family and his levels of pain and emotional inability.” Elvis Presley’s daughter wed Jackson in 1994 but they split just 18 months later.

Lisa Marie’s Blog, May 12, 2010


Greetings MJ Fans – Lisa Marie Presley’s MySpace Blog |

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Greetings MJ Fans….

While visiting him a few days ago at Forest Lawn , Riley and I couldn’t help but notice that , while there are a few bouquets , candles and gifts there is a very large empty space around him and in front of him that could use a whole lot more.

While , I am sure that the staff at The Holy Terrace do their very best to place what is sent and what is placed at the door at his tomb , I thought you might like to know that he would want and deserves more than what is there and I had an idea…….

Some may or may not know this but his favorite flower was the Sunflower.

They made him happy because they looked happy to him , Thus, he called them “The Happy Flower”.

When we were married , I would try and fill up rooms with them wherever he was.

I wanted to bring something to place near him that he liked and that wouldn’t die so I brought a large vase of silk sunflowers and placed them near him.

This barely made any kind of dent in the atmosphere so I thought of maybe letting those who care know what the situation is and how we can solve it.

I know how much he loved and appreciated being showered with Gifts and flowers by his fans , I thought if whoever wants to bought just one silk sunflower each and sent it , the whole area around him and in front of him (As well as the two large empty vases that sit on either side of him) could be filled up in no time, which would be much more appropriate than what the current status is right now.

We can all cause a “Sun shower” if you will………..

He deserves to be flooded and surrounded , LETS SURROUND HIM!

Lots of Love,

~LMP

There are two Forest Lawns in LA which is confusing,

Below is the correct address to send them to:

The Holy Terrace At Forest Lawn

1712 South Glendale Avenue

Glendale Calif, 91205

Florist donates $5000 worth of sunflowers to Michael, 15th May 2010


X17 XCLUSIVE – Lisa Marie’s Request For Sunflowers At Michael Jackson’s Mausoleum Is Granted

Sunflowers are being delivered as we speak to Michael Jackson’s mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale. This past week, Lisa Marie Presley asked fans via MySpace to bring the King of pop sunflowers to the site of his mausoleum. Josh Levin, owner of sunflowerguy.com was quick to respond to Lisa Marie’s request!

Levin tells X17online exclusively via cell phone on the way to Forest Lawn:

“We’re delivering 300 bushels of sunflowers to Michael’s site. If someone were to buy this amount in a store, it would cost them $5000 dollars. But we are happy to respond to Lisa Marie’s request and donate the flowers.”

Levin, accompanied by his assistant, left their flower shop in Vista, California this morning at 6:30, and arrived at 9:25am.

Black buckets, each filled with 50 sunflowers, were delivered.

Forest Lawn tells X17online exclusively that this past Monday, Lisa Marie visited the cemetery with Sunflowers of her own. A source on site tells us, “Lisa Marie carried in a portrait-sized frame and bushels of sunflowers. She carefully arranged them to look as though the sunflowers are coming out of the empty frame … almost like a 3D portrait. She spent over an hour getting it just right.” ]

As for getting this many flowers at once, Forest Lawn’s flower shop tells X17online, “This is the first time we’ve received this kind of delivery. At the most, people have brought only 2 or 3 bouquets at once, but this is unbelievable! Security will definitely be escorting them in.”

Lisa Marie leaves a vase of sunflowers with the inscription, “I Will Always Love You,” X17, 15th May 2010


Lisa Marie’s frame and vase which reads, “I will always love you” and something else I can’t decipher (eternally? something else?)

Lisa Marie thanks Flowerguy for the flowers, TMZ, 17 May 2010





Lisa Marie Presley just sent a “thank you” bouquet to the florist that decorated Michael Jackson’s tomb with sunflowers — because if there’s one thing a florist needs, it’s more flowers.

TMZ has learned Presley sent the flowers to sunflowerguy.com — along with a personalized card that said, “Thank you so much for donating the beautiful flowers.”

Lisa Marie Presley’s Blog, June 24th 2010


“Sunshower”

The Song” Sunshower” by Chris Cornell says more than anything I could say…………

11:04 PM

eta: Chris Cornell’s Sunshower lyrics

Dark as roses, fine as sand

Feel your healing and your sting again

I hear you laughing and my soul is saved

On forgotten graves you cry

Crawl like ivy up my spine

Through my nerves and into my eyes

Cuts like anguish

Or recollections of better days gone by

But it’s all right

When you’re caught in pain

And you feel the rain come down

It’s all right

When you find your way

Then you see it disappear

It’s all right

Though your garden’s grey

I know all your graces

Someday will flower

In the sweet sunshower

Eyes like oceans so far away

A feather trail to a better way

Worried mornings turn into days

Then into worried nights

But it’s all right

When you’re all in pain

And you feel the rain come down

Oh it’s all right

When you find your way

Then you see it disappear

Oh it’s all right

Though your garden’s grey

I know all your graces

Someday will flower

Oh in the sweet sunshower

Oh in the sweet sunshower

In the sweet sunshower

I know all your graces

Someday will flower

In the sweet sunshower

And it’s all right

All you’ll be you are today

Are today

It’s all right

All you’ll be you are today

Are today………

MJ’s Bodyguards from 2007-2009, July 13th 2010


Q: Hi I know you should be busy but I´d like to know something, if you can answer of course.

a) Do you know Lisa Marie or have you seen her with Michael?

b)Did he talk about her or other girl?

MJs Bodyguards July 13 at 10:55pm

Please Stop with the Lisa Marie questions! We don’t know her, we never met her. She and MJ were not married during our watch.

Q: Ava Lane I have a question. What did Michael feel when Lisa Marie Presley was bashing him in the press all through 2003-2008?

She bashed him on Larry King, Oprah Winfrey, Diana Sawyer, even going as far as saying she regretted marrying him a few times. Did Michael say anything? Did he get angry? Sad? Hurt? Thank you for your ti…me gentlemen

God Bless.

MJs Bodyguards

He never said anything about it to us, she was long before us.

Yesterday at 00:01 •

Lisa Marie on Oprah Winfrey, 21st October 2010


O: Can you be as famous as your father was famous, as famous as your former husband Michael Jackson was famous as famous as you’ve grown up to be and be normal?

L: No. (laughs) I can only answer for myself. To tell you that I’m not normal. But um…

O: But you’ve managed to be relatively very private and that’s why I’m thrilled that you’re talking to me today. You’ve made a conscious decision to talk now. Why?

L: Every time I’ve ever had an interview in the past I tend to get very defensive because I was usually promoting something and it would cross into my personal life and I tend to never want to discuss the two. I never want them to cross. I know that it’s hard to have them not but I wanted to sit and really have a conversation about things that are you know, more in a personal level now, out of the way, before I do have an album coming out. Which I will sometime next year because…

O: I get that. I get that because you didn’t want to be in the position of promoting an album and having people ask you about Michael Jackson.

L: Exactly.

Narration: (the star crossed love affair between Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson started in 1993. What began as friendship bloomed very quickly into something more and in 1994 Lisa Marie shocked the world when she married Michael Jackson. And just a year and a half later their marriage was over. They had not spoken for nearly a decade when Michael was found dead on June 25th 2009 at a rented home in Los Angeles)

O: You’ve not spoken about Michael Jackson since his death other than the blog you did.

L: Right and I really didn’t speak well, when I see previous interviews, I’m barky and I tend to want to skirt out of it and I would find quick little exits defensively out of it…

O: It’s interesting because the very first interview we did together, when I asked you if it was a real relationship you became very barky and defensive because…

L: Because I didn’t understand my relationship with him.

O: Well, having gotten to know you since then, I understand your defensiveness coming from your point of view. But coming from my point of view, the viewers point of view, the world, didn’t know what to make of that.

L: Right.

O: And really still doesn’t know what to make of that and therefore your blog after his death where you said “I want to set the record straight, this relationship was not a sham, this was a real marriage.”

L: Mhhmmm.

O: I think really struck a lot of people. And even when you said on my show, yes, this was a real marriage, there was a sexual relationship, and all of that, but the rest of the world I think thought it was a big staged publicity something, I don’t know. Do you understand that now?

L: Right. I completely understand, I do. I understand that because to some degree he was a master at manipulating a little bit with the media. So I understand that there was no one who really knew who I was so they just assumed I was going along with something that he would be doing
(Oprah: Absolutely) and a lot of that is what I wanted to clear up in an interview, in this interview was to explain… he was brought up that way. You know, before even answering questions about him or talking about him, it would need to be understood fully his life, which is completely different than anyone else’s life that ever was except for you know, my father. He was conditioned to sort of get himself where he needed to go for his career and with his talent. He became very good at making and creating and -

O: Manipulating.

L: Puppeteering – manipulating to some degree. It’s true but, see and I always confused that manipulation, thinking that that manipulation meant he didn’t love me. But I understand it better now. The manipulation was because it was a survival tactic for him.

O: So was it after his death that you have gained such clarity about the relationship?

L: Yes. And I don’t know why. I really don’t understand that. But yes, this whole last year and a half has been spent trying to gain the clarity because at some point I pushed it away and I just had to move on with my life and then that happened and it was like a tidal wave brought it all back.

O: Where were you when you first heard, where were you?

L: I was in England and I don’t know why but it was the strangest day of my life. I was crying all day.

O: For what reason?

L: I don’t know and I don’t normally do that. I was trying to work and I came home and I was literally cutting my food eating my dinner crying and I wanted to go upstairs and go upstairs and watch something mindless on TV and stop crying. I looked at my husband and said “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I just can’t stop” and then an hour later the call came and I heard.

O: You heard, who told you?

L: It was a friend of mine who just… Actually, I got streaming texts, “Are you okay? Are you okay? What’s happening” Actually John Travolta was one of the first texts I got, “Are you alright?” And I said, “What’s happening? Is this actually happening?” It was still unclear, you know.

O: And your reaction, your first reaction?

L: Real honest to goodness shock. Not even tears, just floored, I was honestly floored.

(June 25th 2009: News reporter: Apparently Michael Jackson has suffered cardiac arrest this afternoon. He was rushed to UCLA medical centre” People around the world were glued to their televisions as events unfolded in Los Angeles, by late afternoon it was clear. News reporter: “Michael Jackson, the legendary pop star, known by millions of fans around the world has died.” Oprah: A little over one year later I have come to England to Lisa Marie Presley about their relationship and his death. )

O: The next day after Michael’s death you posted very emotional thoughts on your blog. What made you do that?

L: I think I was just rocking a baby to sleep and I was just in floods of tears. I thought, I don’t know, I had a moment of clarity and I realized that all this bitterness I thought I had and you know, indifference, it was no longer. It all just came… I don’t even, it’s been so crazy. I don’t even know how to explain how all of it happened which is why I waited over a year to talk about it. Because there were so many phases of this -

O: Let me help you through that here, let me read an excerpt of what you wrote the day after he Michael died. You said, “The person I failed to help is being transferred to the LA County Coroner’s Office for his autopsy. All my indifference and detachment that I worked so hard to achieve over the years has just gone into the bowels of Hell and right now I am gutted.” Gutted. I thought that was an interesting choice of words, that means, gutted, empty, dug out…

L: Mhhm.

O: Did you feel that you had failed to help him?

L: Yes.

O: Okay, so in May of 1994 when you were married to him or during the time that you were married to him, did you suspect a drug problem?

L: Honestly, I didn’t really suspect and catch on until just before I filed for divorce. There was just an occasion, an incident, where he had collapsed and he was in the hospital.

O: This was for HBO?

L: Yeah, there was an appearance he was supposed to make.

(In December 1995 Michael Jackson collapsed onstage while rehearsing for an HBO concert special in New York. His doctors said Michael was suffering from a viral infection. Lisa Marie flew to his side in the hospital where he stayed for six days.)

L: Everybody flew to the hospital. And, um, it was very confusing what was wrong, because every day there was a different report. I couldn’t tell what was happening. Dehydration, low blood pressure, exhaustion, a virus, so I couldn’t really get a straight answer as to what was happening with him. I think we were all a little bit in the dark. At that point I think I really got from various indications I believed that was going on then.

O: You thought there was some drug use?

L: Yeah, yeah. There were times when I would pick him up from a certain doctor’s office and he would not be coherent. There was some behaviour now looking back at it. I knew that that was, because of injections because they were painful and he would need certain things because he needed to…

O: He would need things for what?

L: Injections or whatever various dermatological…

O: Was this for his skin disease?

L: Skin, various things he needed.

O: Was it the kind of marriage where a lot of things went unsaid or unspoken or did you feel a sense of intimacy and connection, that you could ask him anything?

L: I honestly can tell you that it was in every sense a normal marriage and everything was spoken. In the middle of the night, if he needed to wake up and tell me, bounce something off me, and wake me up and wanna talk… if there was trouble…

O: Was he having trouble sleeping then?

L: He was like a little gnome. I used to tell him he was a gnome running around the room because it was hard for him to sleep. A lot of times I couldn’t sleep either if he wasn’t sleeping. I’d just hear him piddling. It was a bit endearing but then I didn’t mind it. But he did have a hard time sleeping, yes.

O: Did you feel like you were in many ways a nurturer or caretaker for him?

L: Very much. And I really loved that role and I loved taking care of him. It was the highest point of my life, one of the very highest points of my life. When things were going really well and he and I were united together and he and I had an understanding about some of the people and the things that could go around him and he was with me on those things and we were a unit and I could take care of him. In spite of what people speculated while I was with him that I wanted a career or was trying to do something, it was absolute BS. I’ve never been comfortable being front and centre, honestly don’t like being front and centre. Loved being next to him, taking care of him. I was on such a high from doing that. It was a very profound time of my life. So it wasn’t anything – it was real, as far as that goes.

O: I heard you say to the producers that being with him was some of the highest highs for you, as you’ve just described, and also some of the lowest lows.

L: Yes.

O: What was the lowest low?

L: The lowest was… you know, again, when I talk about him I now in retrospect want to make very clear that I understand him now more than I ever did. So when I speak about him I can speak about him with understanding and it’s all good now. For some reason, I don’t know what happens when someone passes away and this is what’s come of it, but I’ve come to have all this love again and understanding for him. I don’t know why it had to take all that to have this happen. That upsets me a bit. But the lowest low…

O: ’Cause were you angry with him before? Were you angry with him when you left the marriage?

L: I was angry, I was very angry. I was so angry, because I felt that we had such… we were so united. Then at some point he pushed me out.

O: Why did the marriage end?

L: There was a very profound point in the marriage when he had to make a decision, was it the drugs and the sort of vampires… or me? And he pushed me away.

O: Vampires?

L: Meaning, people that are sort of spiders, vampires…

O: Sycophants?

L: Sycophants, yeah.

O: So you saw that all around him?

L: Oh God, yes. And it was…

O: Many people talk about that and there are stories written about him. He seemed to be drawn to people who would take advantage of him. What was that?

L: The one thing that correlates with Michael and with my father on this subject is that they had the luxury of creating whatever reality around them they wanted to create. They could have the kinds of people who were gonna go with their program or not go with their program and if they weren’t then they could be disposed of.

O: It’s the reality of being a God in your own world.

L: Right. And this is something that I’ve experienced – that I’ve had way too much experience with. With both sides, where I’ve seen what can go on and that is um…

O: My way or the highway.

L: Right! Michael wasn’t a bad person because that’s how he functioned – he didn’t know any better. It wasn’t that – I took it very personally though. I felt like I was disposable. It was the same with my father, sometimes I sit and I think, there were times when I was angry at the people around him, why didn’t you stop him, why didn’t you say something? Well, because if you did you were out. It’s very simple.

O: So-

L: And he didn’t mean anything either.

O: So he wasn’t the kind of person, nor your father was, who wanted people around him who telling them the truth, he wanted to be told what they wanted to hear.

L: When it’s this unusual reality in an ivory tour and this God like life, mixed with an addiction, that’s when you get into trouble. A lot of trouble.
(August 16th 1977, nine year old Lisa Marie was home at Graceland when her father Elvis collapsed in his bathroom and died. There was a lethal mix of fourteen drugs in his system.)

O: Are you struck between the parallel from your father’s life and Michael Jackson’s life? Your father and your former husband?

L: Yes. It really blows me away to be honest with you. I still try to figure out why, what is it that I had to go through twice? Where these two incredible people and I speak with the utmost respect and love for both.

O: Your father and Michael.

L: Yes, who had the same fate. What is it about me? I went through it once and that was painful and I went through it again. I don’t quite understand it, y’know.

O: When we were hiking this summer, Lisa shared something with me that you all would find interesting.

(Shot of his LA home: This is the home in Los Angeles where Michael Jackson died. Across the street, just a stone throw away was Elvis Presley’s
California home, where Lisa Marie spent a lot of time growing up.)

O: What about the irony of that? Just across the street!

L: It’s… my mother, when I came home after being in England for so long, I wanted to drive by and see where it was and I lived there up until after he died, she sold it. So I had several birthday’s there. I said, she said, “It’s right across the street,” and I said, “Oh please, it’s not right across the street. You’re being… whatever,” shooed her off. And I drove and I really was completely… I don’t even know how to describe that. How that felt because… I don’t even think he knew, I think that was another thing where these things keep happening and the universe… and I’m like, what is it that I’m trying to learn here? What is it that I need to know?

O: I thought it was interesting when you wrote the blog the day after Michael Jackson’s death that you titled the blog, “He knew.” What did he know?

L: When I was watching the footage of the ambulance backing out of his driveway, I went back to this conversation I had with him at Neverland in the library. We were sitting by the fire and he was telling me that he was afraid that he was going to end up like my father. He was always asking me about when he died and how it happened and where…

O: Michael was always asking you about your father?

L: Yes. And he said, I feel like I’m going to end up the same way.

O: Did you say why?

L: Yeah. I was like, “What are you talking about? I don’t understand,” and down to the play by play by play incident, it was identical.

O: First of all, you were much younger then. But as you look back at your marriage to him and who you were in that marriage, do you think there was a big part of you that wanted to see the truth?

L: The truth in what way?

O: The truth about the drugs.

L: I was so naive then, I know that isn’t easy to believe now.

O: It isn’t easy to believe but we can all understand the state of mind you were in. So first of all, you growing up as Elvis Presley’s daughter and being in your own right who you are, you wouldn’t be excited about being married to Michael Jackson. It’s not like some fan married to Michael Jackson, because you were used to the fame life. So you fell in love with him because of…?

L: For him. Because he was an incredible, an incredibly dynamic person. If you were in his vicinity and he wanted to give – and he showed you who he was, and he was willing to do that in any way, meant that… I have never felt so high in my life. I have never felt so high in my life as that. I am not lying when I say that. He had something so intoxicating about him and when he was on, when he was ready to share with you or give it to you, and be himself and allow you to come in. I don’t know if I’ve ever been that intoxicated by anything.

O: I can hear what you’re saying, because when I first interviewed him – first met him before the interview in 1992 (1993), it’s like he shines his light upon you. When he opens himself up and lets that light through you just want to be in that.

L: Yes!

O: You just want to be in that, you want to be around that and you know, we were all in Neverland eating the candy and having a great time and I left thinking, “Gosh, I wish I could be his friend.”

L: Yeah. It was like a drug. He was like a drug for me. I felt like I just always wanted to be around him, always wanted to be part of – I felt so high. I’ve never felt like that around another human being, except for one, which was my father.

O: So interesting because you just said you were nine years old when your father died, never felt that feeling before, so in many ways being with Michael brought back that feeling of that light falling on you.

L: Yes.

O: All of that energy coming your way.

L: Yes!

O: Did you feel loved by Michael in the beginning?

L: Very much so. I don’t think I realized it at the time, how much – what that meant because I know that was very unusual for him. I know he’d had a few dates in his life but there was nothing profound for him in that area. He fell in love with me and I fell in love with him. It was very real.

O: How did he ask you to marry him?

L: We were in the library in front of the fire and he pulled this giant 10 carat diamond out of his pocket and put it on my finger. I think he got on his knees too and proposed.

O: And at the time he proposed did you think that would be forever?

L: I did. I don’t know, I did. And when I was younger I can honestly say that you can think like that and believe that.

O: You know from the outside it just seemed so, too extraordinarily famous people together, everywhere you went it seemed like a circus.

L: It’s true. But it didn’t happen that often. We were together a lot and there was no cameras. I think a lot of that was because the promo for HIStory was coming so we had to go there and do this, all very manipulated, which I understand comes across as very manipulated, period.

O: Did you ever feel manipulated in the relationship?

L: Sometimes. But he knew that I didn’t love that and he was okay. He got it. He needed to do his thing, I would be there uncomfortably, like the MTV thing, his hand was blue afterwards after we got off that stage. He showed me and it was completely blue, I had squeezed it so hard! (laughs) I did not want to do that. It’s not in my nature to do that sort of thing. But I understood it as his way of, he needed to do things like that.

(Lisa Marie and Michael Jackson had been married for a year when he released the intimate music video for You Are Not Alone)

O: So was there a lot of pressure for you to have a baby?

L: Yes, there was quite a bit. I mean he was…

O: From the time you got married?

L: Yes, there was. And I did want to. I just kept, I wanted to make sure, I was looking into the future and I was thinking I don’t ever want to get into a custody battle with him, I don’t want to go head to head with him. So I need to make sure that everything around is good. I know, I’ve had children, I knew that bringing children into certain circumstances you have to make sure that everything is safe and secured and okay and I wanted to make sure that he and I were really really united because we were gonna be up against so much.

O: I can’t remember the exact month you divorced, but you divorced and several months later, I know by October, it was announced that Debbie Rowe was pregnant. How did you feel about that?

L: Well, I knew it was a bit of a retaliatory act on his part. Because I didn’t have a baby and I know that she was there the whole time telling him she would do it.

O: You knew that?

L: He would come tell me, he would come tell me. “If you’re not gonna do it, Debbie said she’ll do it.” And I was like, “What is that? Hi. Uh… not gonna entice me.” So we would get into it, you know, arguments because that really wasn’t how to handle it. But that was how he knew how to handle it, I don’t wanna say – he’d be like, “Well if you’re not going to, this person will. Are you gonna do it or not?”

O: That’s what you mean by disposable.

L: Yes! That’s exactly what I mean.

O: Oh, I get it. Well, there’s not many men who will say, you either have a baby for me or I got somebody standing in the wings who will.

L: Right and it sounds… hindsight twenty twenty and I understand him so well now. But at that time I didn’t.

O: Hurt?

L: Hurt. Hurt, I was hurt. And I did things that hurt him. I did stupid things too.

O: Like what?

L: Like, I was very torn because I broke up my family. I left my husband for Michael. I was having a hard time trying to process that.

(Lisa Marie was twenty years old when she married her first husband musician Danny Keough. Together they had two children, Riley and Ben. After more than five years together Lisa Marie divorced Danny. Twenty days later she was married again to Michael Jackson.)

:: While I was with Michael I was still trying to process what I had done. I never could feel good about it. I felt like, how could I have done that to somebody and I have these two little ones. Danny was still very much part of my life. Michael didn’t quite know what to do with that sometimes. That made him uncomfortable and I understood that. Michael would wonder, “Why are you in Hawaii with Danny?” I’d take a vacation and Danny would go. Michael would get upset and “Where are you?” and he would disappear for a couple of weeks and I couldn’t find him. Things would make him uncomfortable and when I would do things that would make Michael uncomfortable, if he got uncomfortable or felt vulnerable, he would ice you out as a mechanism. He would push you away and ice you. It was like a shark sometimes in that way, he could just like that, if you’d done him wrong or whatever, you were out. We had some moments like that. But I have to say in retrospect. that he honestly tried so hard and went through so much with me, and I know now when I look back at it, he’s never done that with any other female or anyone as much as we went through. We hit rough waters, we would fight, we would argue, three day arguments sometimes, taking a break to eat and sleep. I have to say that I really admire that he really gave it a good shot, you know, I didn’t appreciate it then and I wish I did.

O: Did he have to die for you to recognize that he loved you?

L: I think so, sadly.

O: Is that the first time that you recognized or believed that he truly loved you, after he died?

L: I think, yes. Sweeping answer would be yes. When we were together we were really in love and then we had the rough patches and then I had to make the decision to walk when I saw the drugs and the doctors walk in and they scared me and put me right back to what I went through with my father. Then that ended. We again, were going to get back together, we spent four more years after we’d divorced getting back together and breaking up and talking about getting back together and breaking up. At some point, I had to push it away because it was not, I wasn’t moving forward with myself.

O: So you still loved him even when you left him?

L: Very much. I left him to sort of stomp my foot in the ground and go… I was trying to take a stand and say, come with me, don’t do this. That was a stupid move, because he didn’t. And he’s you know, he’s a stubborn… I’m stubborn, he’s stubborn. The two of us it was like you know…

O: Don’t make a dare you’re not willing to follow through on.

L: And actually afterwards, he and I were still… I was still flying all over the world still with him to follow.

O: When was the last time you spoke to him?

L: Coherently good conversation? Sometime in 2005. It was a very long conversation. I was so removed from him and he could feel it and he could hear it. And I think that’s one of the things that killed me in the end too was that I was very distanced and he was checking to get a read, he was trying to throw a line out to see if I would bite emotionally and I wouldn’t. I was pretty shut off at that point. I don’t even know how I managed to be like that but I was. He was asking me, he wanted to tell me that I was right about a lot of the people around him, that it had panned out to be exactly what he and I had talked about years ago. He asked if I still loved him and we went into a whole thing about that and I told him I was indifferent and he didn’t like that word and he cried. He was trying to find out where I was at and how I could become so detached. Then the final part of the conversation was him telling me that he felt that someone was going to try to kill him to get a hold of his catalogue and his estate.

O: So he actually gave you names?

L: He did. And I’d rather not say them. But he expressed to me that his concern over his life.

O: You know, I’ve asked you this and I have to ask it again, even though it’s an uncomfortable subject, but whether or not you had ever seen any inapropriate behaviour between Michael and young children?

L: Are you asking me again?

O: I’m asking you again.

L: The answer is absolutely not, in any way. I did not see anything like that.

O: By 2005 was when he was on trial with the second charge. Your feelings at that time were what?

L: He was calling me about it and I said, “Please keep your head together, please. If this goes to trial, please hold it together.” He said, “What are you talking about, what do you mean?” And he said, “You mean drugs?” And I said, “Yes.” Because all I saw was random things coming out, whether it was Martin Bashir and all these interviews, and in those interviews I saw him intoxicated. I didn’t see the Michael that I knew in that Martin Bashir interview. He was high as a kite, from what I saw and from what I knew.

O: Really?

L: He was either too speedy or he was sedated. It wasn’t the Michael that I knew.

O: The shocking things, he said some pretty shocking things in that Martin Bashir interview, particularly about how he felt about how it was okay to sleep with young children.

L: I think he said that stuff sometimes to be defiant, because he got so angry at having been accused. He was such a stubborn little rebel at times and he was like a child and he would just say what he felt everyone didn’t want him to say. I don’t feel like he had a straight head during those things and I think that they were edited in a very very manipulative nasty way.

O: So you never saw anything and to this day you don’t believe any of those charges were true?

L: No. I honestly cannot say. The only people who are going to be able to say the truth are him and whoever was in that room at the time it allegedly took place. I was never in the room; it wouldn’t be fair for me to… I can tell you I never saw anything like that.

O: Have you now made peace with his death? I know that you watched the funeral that we all saw on television and you went to a private ceremony, what was that like standing in the room with his casket?

L: That was really, another six months of whatever I recovered from I think. I think I was the last one standing with him. That was…

O: What do you mean the last one standing with him?

L: Well, most people had left and I was the last one standing over him. I didn’t want to leave him.

O: As you stood over his casket I know that there’s probably nothing more personal or private than those moments when you stood over that casket, were you able to make peace?

L: No. I wasn’t able to make peace then. I more wanted to apologize. I felt like I wanted to apologize.

O: For?

L: Not being around.

O: Do you think you could have saved him?

L: God, that’s such a hard question. Naively I want to say… I know that it’s naive to think that I could have. But I wanted to. Could I have? Had I made a call, had I stopped being so shut off from him, had I said, “How are you?” Had I tried to make a phone call, you know, I really regret that I didn’t.

O: Do you think family and friends let him down? Do you think that someone could have done something?

L: I think that they tried. Sadly, like I said, if he didn’t want you around, if you were going to make him confront something he didn’t want to confront he could make you go away, including his own family. They got in the opposite side of that. I think that was a train heading into a certain direction that nobody could stop. I think I’ve really had to get my head around that in order to stop the pain.

O: For yourself?

L: Mhhm.

O: And how is this for your current husband who seem like a really loving generous supportive man? How is it for him with all this Michael stuff coming up?

L: He is so happy I’ll be done with this interview, he’s like “I just want you to exorcize this and get it out,” because I’ve been… he’s had to hear it for so long.

O: Never good for the current husband to have to hear about the ex husband a lot.

L: No, it’s not. It’s not, no. And I understand that. But he also understands that, he’s the most understanding person I’ve ever met in my life. I’ve never… thank God because he’s really allowed me to go through whatever it is I needed to go through with this. But I know it’s highly highly unusual and I know it’s a lot to ask for of him. I don’t feel good about it but it’s something that came down on me that I’ve had to deal with and I’ve had to…

O: Because all these Michael feelings were repressed and buried when you started dating Michael Lockwood

L: Exactly.

O: You’ve said earlier that the universe, God, you don’t understand is trying to teach you something obviously because of the parallels between your father Elvis Presley’s life and Michael Jackson’s life, now with over a year after Michael’s death and thirty three years since your father’s passed, what do you think the lesson is?

L: I feel really alone in that I’ve gone through this with these incredible like this. I feel really honored at the same time.

O: With Michael’s death, for you is it like a lot of people still, his birthday, the anniversary of his death, are those still hard days?

L: They are but it’s been happening all my life. August 16th I’ve dreaded my whole life which is you know…

O: The death of your father.

L: Yes and now it’s June 25th.

O: We said, you said when we talked about this interview you said you were going to do it one time, so this is it you’re not going to talk about it anymore?

L: No, I’m not, I’m not going to talk about it. If anyone wants to know about it in the future, they can refer to the Oprah Winfrey show.

O: Thank you. Thank you for letting us have the time and for opening up about it. Not an easy thing to do.

L: Thanks.

Jermaine Jackson asked if Michael should’ve stayed married to LMP, Times Interview, 10th September 2011


More evolved things, such as women, he found problematic. Jermaine’s conviction is that Michael was a heterosexual of the romantic rather than predatory sort (although a jape during a tour in which, from under the bed, he caressed the buttocks of a Jermaine conquest as they made out suggests he was not always the blushing innocent). He was in love with Diana Ross, dated Brooke Shields, and in 1994 married Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of another showbiz king. They divorced two years later.

“I would have loved to have seen him stay with her, because she was strong. She was very strong.” Was he capable of sustaining a relationship with the right woman? “I think he would have been… I think it would have made a difference if he had a strong woman.”

Jermaine Talks About Michael’s Marriage To Lisa Marie, “You Are Not Alone,” released September 2011


Moving into 1994, there was a good reason for him to feel on top of the world because he had finally found his true counterpart in a woman: someone who had had a restrictive childhood, wasn’t impressed by his fame, had experienced living under a spotlight and didn’t need him for his money. Someone who absolutely understood his world and needed nothing from him but love. Lisa Marie Presley ticked all the boxes.

Looking back, Lisa Marie Presley was always popping up on the periphery of Michael’s life, sporadically flashing by unnoticed until their paths converged. Retracing destiny’s map today, it seems clear it was always God’s plan that they unite.

I’m not one for coincidence; I don’t think there is such a thing. And I know that Michael there felt there was a strong element of “meant to be” when they first met as adults in late 1992. He viewed destiny as a game of chess: we, the people, are the pieces and God was the player, moving us around the board until King takes Queen.

By the time of the big Oprah interview, Michael had already started a phone relationship with Lisa Marie, building up toward their ultimate romance – which ends the lie about a ‘publicity marriage to restore his reputation’ after the events of 1993. As a couple, they were flirting and talking and starting to feel something long before the extortion nightmare began.

In fact, destiny’s journey began in 1974 when we were in Vegas doing the family variety show. Somewhere between those bookings, we went to nearby Tahoe for a performance at the Sahara Tahoe casino lounge. That sort of intimate venue seated about 100,000 people and pulled in the likes of Frank Sinatra and Charlie Rich. At some point during our down time, Jackie must have wandered off with Michael because they found themselves in one of those wide, service type elevators. Apparently, they were standing around, watching their feet, when the elevator stopped. The doors opened and Elvis stepped in, slicked hair and sparkling jumpsuit with high collar, a thick towel around his neck. He looked at Jackie and Michael. “You’re those Jackson boy?” he asked.

They nodded, dumbstruck. You’d think that once you’d met the likes of Smokey Robinson, Sammy David Junior and Jackie Wilson, nthing could faze you, but the randomness of that shared elevator ride was the biggest unexpected thrill. Not that it lasted long. Seconds later, the doors opened again and Elvis was on his way. “Good luck, fellas!” he said. That was the day Michael met the future father in law he would never know.

I was mad to have missed out, but some years later, back in Nevada, I found myself in a hotel – can’t remember which one – and spotted Elvis’ right hand man, Colonel Tom Parker, amid a cloud of cigar smoke. He was a legend: the manager of all managers. Bespectacled and rotund, with his trademark red scarf around his double chin, he was sitting at a restaurant table near the casino. I dared to venture over and say hi. Before I knew it, we were siting down, talking all matters Elvis and the Jackson 5, as 20 year old me pretened to puff on one of his big ass cigars. He was fascinated by Mother and Joseph. “Tell me, how did they produce all that talent in just one family? That’s what I wanna know,” he said, probably working out the commission percentages in his head and multiplying it by nine.

When he asked me to fire at him any question about Elvis – and after I had found out that The Kind logved doughnuts and the blues group Muddy Waters (not to be confused with the artist) – I couldn’t resist asking the one thing that had always intrigued me: “Is it true that you split everything 50:50 with Mr Elvis?”

He laughed at my audacity. “Yeah.” He let out another thick swirl of smoke.

I was still pretty green about all matters business but even I was thinking Elvis must be mad to give away half his earnings but Colonel Parker was shrewd. He sat there all relaxed but commanding – like he owned the very spot were we were seated – and we spoke about how much of a partnership he’d shared with Elvis, how trust was everything in this business, and how Elvis set the bar as the hardest working man he knew. Later, when I told the brothers about this inspirational metting, Michael only wanted to know one thing: “Did you ask him if Jackie Wilson was one of his favourites?” Now there was a question I should have asked. “Because it sure loooks like he stole his moves!” he joked.

We did find out one thing about Colonel Parker: Elvis’ six year old daughter was a “big Jackson 5″ fan, who had already seen us perform, she’d attended a show with one of her father’s backing singers. Years later, someone said that she was brought backstage to meet us.

The next ime I saw Lisa Marie was maybe 17 years later around 1990-1 in a pharmacy in the Brentwood district of LA. I wondered about going over to say hello but she looked frazzled and I hesitated. Soon afterwards, in 1992, she and Michael discovered they had a mutual friend in the Australian artist Brett Livingstone Strong, and the man who had found my brother his secret hideaway in an airport hangar now polayed unintentional match maker. He brought them together at a dinner and from that day – when she was still married to Danny Keough – an innocent friendship began, the slow forming foundation to a very real romance.

Throughout Michael’s ordeal in 1993, Lisa Marie was one of those he called on for advice by phone wherever he was in the world. There were others: hotel owner Steve Wynn, talent manager Sandy Gallin and MCA Records David Geffen but she impressed him with her no nonsense, straight forward, hard advice. With so many voices around him, she was refreshing sounding board. She took no bullshit, and when she saw it around him, she made her feelings about certain people very clear. That kind of frankness always made my brother chuckle. There were no show business airs and graces, and she was feminine, fine looking and strong. I’d say the attraction was obvious.

The world didn’t see them step out together until 1994 – which is presumably why there was talk about a marriage of convenience – but she had actually joined Michael in public in May 1993 at some charity kid’ event out east as a guest of ex American President Jimmy Carter.

Michael never missed an opportunity to meet a president! Not only had he read up on nearly every one of them, but his coffee table in the living room at Neverland was decorated with framed photographs of him meeting Presidents Carter, Clinton and Reagan. Michael was very proud of that presidential showcase and he became particularly friendly with the Clintons. Soon the house would be filled with photographs of Lisa MArie, her two children, and Michael. It had taken 20 years since they first flashed by one another in 1974 and now Jackson was in love with Presley. The King’s daughter and the King of Pop – God doesn’t write better movie scripts than that.

It was a quiet wedding so quiet that we didn’t even know it was happening. The ceremony took place in the Domincan Republic in May 1994 and a decision was clearly taken not to inform either family: a “we want no fuss” affair. The fewer people who knew about it, the less chance there was of the press finding out. Had Mother been there, she might have reminded the officiating minsiter that her son’s name was not “Michael Joseph Jackson” as was said in the bows, much to Michael’s amusement. Once they were declared man and wife, the over excited groom phoned Mother from their hoel suite with his “big news,” but she thought it was one of his pranks. “You’re telling me you married Lisa Marie Presley? No, you did not,” she said.

“I did! I did!” he said, starting to laugh.

“I don’t believe you!”

“You want to speak with her? She’s here with me now…” he said, and there was, apparently, a lot of laughter in the background before Lisa Marie said hello and eventually put Michael back on.

Mother still didn’t believe it. “That’s no here – you’ve just got some black girl pretending to be her,” she insisted.

By now, Michael was laughing so hard he could hardly speak. Bless Mother, her Alabama ears had expected Elvis’ daughter to speak with her father’s drawl. As she recalls it today: “She sounded so unlike what I had imagined. Goes to show…”

There was probably another reason why Mother was sceptical. Michael was always ringing either her, Rebbie or Janet, disguising his voice and pretending to be someone else. His English gent impression was apparently very convincing, and always had them fooled.

In that phone call from the Dominican Republic Mother loved hearing how excited he was to have a wife. I only witnessed rare glimpses of this marriage because they were so wrapped up in each other. My previous concerns about him being alone – surrounded by professional advisers or filling the void with random people – evaporated. Now he had someone very real, firm, and big hearted, who wasn’t afraid of the vultures around him.

I laughed at media suggestions they were “faking it” because we all knew in the family the intensity of their relationship and how they always wanted to be together. Michael’s joy couldn’t have been faked. The intimacy you see in the video for You Are Not Alone was art imitating life; a sweet glimpse as to how easy they were with one another and how they liked to laugh. Reports that we “loathed” our brother’s new wife could not have been further from the truth; she was only ever embraced and there was never one iota of a doubt that she had Michael’s best interests at heart. She grew particularly close to Janet and Rebbie. When my sisters spend time with Lisa Marie and heard her speak about Michael, they always came away saying the same thing: “That girl is crazy about him!”

Now that Lisa Marie had arrived in Michael’s life, I stopped throwing out my lines of communication. For me, it was only ever abouo, “Is Michael okay?”

Once I knew he was okay, I was, too.

[..]

I didn’t know there was friction in Michael’s marriage until crisis phone calls were going back and forth between Lisa Marie and Mother, Janet and Rebbie. I wasn’t privy to those heart to hearts but it was obvious that the intensity of the romance at the start was mirrored in its falling apart.

The compromise needed in a marriage was, I think, a more difficult shift for Michael to make than he’d imagined. I’d honestly thought this one was going to last because they seemed suited, but when there was a problem, one of them needed to bend first and neither partner knew how to do that. Michael struggled with the demands of married life, and I think Lisa Marie struggled with his isolating creative process. I’m guessing now, but when you think how she grew up with a father who was always away, always performing, always in the studio, the last thing she needed was an absent husband. She couldn’t understand why he had to be gone all the time, and he couldn’t understand why she had a problem with him being in the studio, sometimes sleeping there. So, when Lisa Marie questioned his decisions, he thought, wrongly, that she wanted to tie him down.

They spent most of their time living at Lisa Marie’s house in Hidden Hills, north of LA, but there was added pressure because Michael had taken under his wing the grandkids of our uncle Lawrence, Joseph’s brother. There were problems in that family and my brother had stepped in, feeling that the kids needed real love at a difficult time. I’m sure Lisa Marie had every sympathy but she understandably wanted her husband to be emotionally there for her, too.

As the weeks went by, she realized she was not spending enough family time with her own kids, even though they spent some weekends at Neverland, which still remained a place where visiting families came together. At times, and no doubt in response, Lisa Marie disappeared for a few days and when she wasn’t around, Michael became insecure. A vicious cycle developed: she wondered where he was and he wondered where she was – jealousy and distance never were a good combination in Hollywood. Now, instead of coming together, they were pulling apart.

On one occasion, Michael spent the day in the studio with his protege Wade Robson, working late into the night. He decided to stay at Wade’s family home at the invitation of his mother instead of of returning to his wife – it was easier that way. Michael hated arguments or raised voices and preferred to avoid a problem rather than confront it. But Lisa Marie wasn’t putting up with it: she stood up to Michael and challenged him. That was what he needed, even if he didn’t appreciate it. Also, he was still contending with the remnants of his demerol dependency. I don’t know how much of it Lisa Marie saw, but I do know that Michael wasn’t finding his recovery easy and he was still suffering pain that agitated him and kept him awake at night.

Another uncomfortable factor for Michael was Lisa Marie’s beliefs as a Scientologist. She gave him lots of reading material about her religion and he devoured it all. At some point he discovered that Scientologists don’t necessarily rely on medication to treat a child’s sickness. Michael’s first port of call would be a paediatrician and he worried about what that might mean when they had children. As it was, he didn’t have to concern himself for long. The one big factor that tipped things over the edge when it came to Lisa Marie – in Michael’s eyes – reneged on her problem to give him kids. As soon as they got married, he started his countdown to having his nine little Moonwalkers. When he became convinced she had broken a pact he felt they made, it would have taken him back to that time when Joseph promised him dinner with Fred Astaire and never delivered. I’m pretty sure Lisa Marie would have felt, from that moment on, as if she was living in Siberia because he would have shut down and gone into retreat.

Soon enough, Lisa Marie ran out of patience. Eighteen months after their wedding, she filed for divorce.

The saddest thing about this whole breakdown is that there was genuine love and friendship between them, but all that got eclipsed and scarred within some power struggle. At the end of the day, it came down to two people with different temperaments and different outlooks, but I always wished for a compromise that never happened.

In the months that followed, I know that she reached out to Janet, Rebbie and Mother for their advice on how to best get through to Michael, to see if there was any way back. For me, that illustrated the love she had for him. But when my brother built those walls, he built them high. What I am thankful for is that Michael only ever wanted to know what a real relationship felt like, and he wanted to be loved, and find true love. As much as the reality didn’t work out in the end, his heart finally got to know true love and I think a part of it stayed with Lisa Marie right until the very end.

Lisa Marie Launching New Exhibit About Her Father And Asked About Michael, Good Morning America, 1st of February 2012


Presley did not want to talk at length about Jackson. The exhibit displays a photo of her and Jackson visiting a children’s hospital in Budapest, Hungary.

“It was just one of the moments that was captured … we were helping this child get a liver transplant,” she said.

When asked what comes to mind when she thinks of Jackson, she said: “I can only say that I have good memories.”