Quick Facts About Lisa Marie Presley: Age, Family, Her Life as Elvis' Daughter, and Why She Really Quit Scientology

Lisa Marie Presley's life was lived in the glare of her father's legend — and in the shadows of private battles that led her away from Scientology.

Elvis and Priscilla's only child, born 1 February 1968, Lisa Marie Presley, died on 12 Jan 2023 at the age of 54, leaving behind a complex legacy as singer, heiress, and mother of four. She inherited her father's estate at 25, an estate long valued in the region of £74.35 million ($100 million).

Background And Quick Facts

Lisa Marie was thrust into public life from the moment she was born to Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She spent her childhood between Graceland and Los Angeles and later pursued a music career that produced three studio albums and periodic chart attention.

She became the sole heir to Elvis's estate after the deaths of Vernon and other trustees, and despite financial ups and downs and the sale in 2005 of most of Elvis Presley Enterprises, she retained ownership of Graceland and the family artefacts.

Her private life was punctuated by four high-profile marriages, public battles with addiction and the tragic suicide of her son Benjamin Keough in 2020; family grief and health issues preceded her own untimely death.

Scientology: From Devotee To Doubter

Lisa Marie's relationship with Scientology was lifelong: she joined as a child with her mother and rose high on the organisation's auditing ladder. In a lengthy, previously unpublished interview with journalist Tony Ortega, Lisa Marie is quoted as saying she reached 'Operating Thetan Level Seven' and that she 'quit after three months' once she saw what the auditing and escalation actually entailed.

Ortega's piece, which reproduces Lisa Marie's own words, makes clear that her disengagement was not impulsive but the result of years of inquiry. She told Ortega she had spent several years quietly gathering testimony about abuses and, crucially, learning about what former insiders called 'the Hole', a punitive compound for Sea Org staff, and that that knowledge helped tip her away from the Church.

Why She Quit Scientology

Lisa Marie told Ortega she had cultivated careful sources who had left the Church 'under the radar' and that discovering systemic punishments and secrecy convinced her to walk away. 'No way, that's not why I joined this,' she said of the revelations about the Hole. She also linked her break to broader concerns about leadership and alleged mistreatment within the organisation.

Priscilla Presley's new memoir, 'Softly, As I Leave You', now adds a familial vantage point. In excerpts and authorised passages connected to the book, Priscilla recounts a tense confrontation between Lisa Marie and Scientology leader David Miscavige that reportedly left Lisa Marie frightened and convinced she was being watched; Priscilla quotes her daughter as saying, 'There are black limos parked outside my house and following me around. This is real. This is what they do.'

That account prompted a formal denial from a Church representative, who told reporters that Lisa Marie had reconciled with the Church in her final years and had apologised for past behaviour while attributing some episodes to drug-related impairment. The Church's statement implicitly disputed the memoir's depiction.

Taken together, the primary materials sketch a picture of growing alarm, confrontation, and final withdrawal. The previously unpublished interview with Ortega is especially valuable because it places Lisa Marie's motivation on the record in her own voice; Priscilla's book, as published by Grand Central, supplies the family context and recounts the immediate aftermath of the confrontation.

Lisa Marie Presley's life combined celebrity privilege with raw personal pain; the new material now in the memoir and in the earlier interview deepens public understanding of why she abandoned Scientology, and why that break left lasting scars on her family.