Lisa Marie Presley had decided who she would trust before her death last month: her children.
On Wednesday, the day before Lisa Marie turned 55, Joel Weinshanker, the managing partner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, appeared on Sirius XM’s Elvis Radio to honor her life and clarify what she constantly desired for the future of Graceland.
“Everyone knew Elvis had left everything to his young daughter after his death. He did so knowing that she would be the one to carry on his legacy,” Weinshanker explained.
“We got along so well because we were all trying to do what was best for Elvis, regardless of what anyone else was doing or what a family member was doing,” the man claimed. “Lisa was impossible to sway or buy. If she thought something wasn’t in Elvis’ best interests, it was never about money. And she is the only Elvis Presley about whom you can truly say that.”
Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of legendary rocker Elvis Presley, was described as “very certain” and “quite forthright” about who she wanted to carry on the tradition.
“We talked this many, many times [before she went], and that was always Riley and Ben,” he said about her children Riley Keough and Benjamin Keough, whom she had with her ex David Keough. “They would be the stewards, and they would approach it the same way she did,” she knew without a doubt. When Ben died, Riley felt a profound sense of loss.
Riley is an actress and director, but the man claims she “always had an interest” and “knew that one day she would be in charge.”
Weinshanker’s final statement advised supporters to remember Lisa Marie’s “words” as they celebrated her birthday. While her death was tragic, he added that “the best years of Graceland are yet to come.”
He appears less than a week after Priscilla Presley’s lawyers filed a Los Angeles petition challenging the “authenticity and validity” of Lisa Marie’s will, which directs that her trust — which includes Elvis’ Graceland property and 15% ownership of Elvis’ estate — be left to her three daughters.
The petition ruled that a 2016 addendum that placed the trust in the care of Riley, 33, and twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, 14, was illegal.
According to the petition, Lisa Marie drafted a living will in 1993 and updated it in 2010, adding Priscilla as a co-trustee alongside her former business manager Barry Siegel.
However, after Lisa Marie died, Priscilla discovered that a 2016 amendment had been inserted, removing both her and Siegel as co-trustees and replacing them with Riley, her twin sisters, and her brother Ben, who committed suicide in 2020. Riley’s representative could not be reached at the time.
According to the petition, there are “many issues surrounding the authenticity and validity” of the amendment, including the failure to provide the amendment to Priscilla “as required by the express terms of the Trust,” Lisa Marie’s signature being “inconsistent” with her usual signature, and the absence of a witness or notary.
Priscilla, 77, requests that the 2016 amendment be declared invalid because she believes the 2010 amendment is still “the authoritative and governing text.”
In a written note she shared, Priscilla paid tribute to Lisa Marie’s birthday.
“Today would have been Lisa’s 55th birthday. “My goal is to protect my three grandchildren and keep our family together,” Priscilla wrote.
“Like I have my son, I have protected, loved, and led Lisa from the moment I held her in my arms,” she explained. “Our hearts have been torn apart, and I’m learning to live without my daughter,” the author said.
“We love you all and are aware of your prayers. I am grateful for your concern for our family,” Priscilla wrote in her note.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must deliver the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla said in a statement on Jan. 12, hours after reports of her being taken to the hospital.
