Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis

Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis is the second memoir by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Originally published in 2025 by Grand Central Publishing, the memoir traces Priscilla’s life in the years after she divorced rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. Priscilla’s memoir focuses how leaving Elvis ultimately set her free to be the woman she is today, exploring themes including Discovering Personal Autonomy and Self-Empowerment, the Generational Nature of Trauma, and Navigating Fame, Public Expectation, and Legacy.

Priscilla Beaulieu Presley is best known as the ex-wife of Elvis Presley. She is also a mother, designer, businesswoman, and the author of another memoir, Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N’ Roll (1985).

This guide refers to the 2025 Grand Central Publishing hardback edition of the memoir.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include sexual content and depictions of substance use, addiction, mental illness, chronic illness, sexual violence, child sexual abuse, child death, death by suicide, and death.

Language Note: Although authors are typically referred to by last name in discussions of their work, this guide presents an unusual case. To prevent readers from confusing Presley and Elvis, this guide refers to the author as Priscilla.

Summary

Priscilla Beaulieu Presley describes the day she decided to leave her romantic partner of 13 years, rock-and-roll icon Elvis Presley. Although much has been said of her choice to divorce the star, Priscilla holds that leaving Elvis was an essential first step in her self-discovery journey. During her marriage to Elvis, she internalized the conservative social norms and gender roles of the 1960s. Priscilla readily accepted Elvis’s role as the man of the house and followed his lead. She let him dress her and make her into his so-called perfect woman and wife. Although Priscilla loved Elvis deeply—she had fallen in love with him when she was just 14 years old—she realized she needed space to create her own life when she was 27.

Priscilla identifies her daughter Lisa Marie Presley as influential to her decision to divorce Elvis, too. Elvis loved their daughter, but he was unwilling to compromise his rock-and-roll lifestyle to fit Lisa Marie’s needs. Instead, he insisted that Priscilla hire a nanny to care for their child so that Priscilla could continue supporting him. Eventually Priscilla felt too compromised by this dynamic. Priscilla was also upset by rumors of Elvis’s extramarital affairs, and started an affair of her own. She claims that her relationship with her karate instructor Mike Stone was not the reason she left Elvis, although they had a relationship after the divorce.

Priscilla and Elvis finalized their divorce in 1973. In the courthouse that day, Priscilla noticed how unwell Elvis looked and worried over his well-being. They shared an intimate exchange and left the court amicably.

Despite her affection for Elvis, Priscilla felt liberated by the divorce. She bought her own property in Beverly Hills, where she raised her daughter. She and Elvis had joint custody and Priscilla did everything in her power to ensure Lisa Marie had a relationship with her dad. This sometimes made her own parenting difficult, as Elvis put no restrictions on Lisa Marie.

Elvis died of a heart attack in 1977, shocking Priscilla, Lisa Marie, and fans around the globe. It was difficult to mourn the love of her life in the spotlight. Priscilla did her best to shield Lisa Marie from the media chaos, too, but ultimately had to retreat from public life for her and her daughter’s safety.

Priscilla claims that discovering the Church of Scientology helped her reclaim her life after Elvis’s passing. She was searching for meaning, and Scientology offered her a way out of her despair. She acknowledges the scandals surrounding the church, but holds that the religion’s philosophies worked for her when she was most in need.

Over the years, Priscilla sought to reinvent herself by following her instincts and gut. She had discovered fashion in the immediate wake of her divorce, delighted by this mode of self-expression. Soon she started working in design as co-owner of the company Bis and Beau. She later pursued a career in acting, appearing in the popular Naked Gun film franchise and the hit television series Dallas. Although initially worried to reenter the spotlight, Priscilla ultimately found her acting career empowering. She found a way to overcome her shyness and explore her identity in a myriad of ways. She met new people and made friends.

Priscilla alternates descriptions of her vocational ventures and meditations on her love life and family life. Priscilla dated numerous men after Elvis, but none of these relationships lasted until she became involved with Marco Garibaldi. They had a son named Navarone, a delightful child who had much of Lisa Marie’s spirit, but was less weighed down by celebrity because Elvis was not his father. Priscilla muses on the differences and similarities between her children, her love for both of them, and the challenges she faced in mothering each of them.

Meanwhile, Lisa Marie was recovering from a drug addiction and settling down in her life with her first husband Danny Keough. This relationship gave Priscilla hope, as Danny loved Lisa Marie for herself and was a Scientologist. They had two children, Riley and Benjamin. Lisa Marie was particularly close with Ben.

Priscilla details Lisa Marie’s fraught relational history after divorcing Danny. Lisa Marie remarried several times—including a brief and controversial relationship with Michael Jackson—eventually settling into a more committed relationship with Michael Lockwood. She and Michael had twins, Harper and Finley. Although the marriage was happy for a time, it ended in turmoil. Lisa Marie relapsed and started using opioids again.

Priscilla muses on all of the heartbreak she has experienced throughout her life. She witnessed both Lisa Marie’s and Navarone’s destructive relationships with drugs. She saw her grandson, Benjamin, pass away at a young age. She lost her mother, too. Then, in 2023, Lisa Marie died when she was just 54. Priscilla still can’t fathom this succession of losses. However, she holds that she has had a good life despite her suffering.

Priscilla describes her work to maintain her late ex-husband’s legacy over the years. For a time, Lisa Marie was involved in this effort. In particular, Priscilla opened Elvis’s former home, Graceland, to the public. She was also involved in Baz Luhrmann’s 2019 biopic Elvis and produced her own documentary, Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018). These and many other such projects allowed Priscilla to uphold Elvis’s musical legacy while humanizing the superstar to the world.

In the Epilogue, Priscilla reflects on all of her experiences. She remarks on the difficulties of recounting and penning her memories, particularly the traumatic ones. Even still, Priscilla claims that all of her dreams have come true and that she has had more adventures than her teenage self could ever have imagined.