The death of Lisa Marie Presley has set off a legal battle between the late singer’s estate and her mother Priscilla Presley. The former wife of Elvis is contesting the will of her daughter, claiming that a document might not be authentic. While Priscilla, has claimed she is trying to keep her family together, the daughter of Lisa Marie is reportedly now at odds with her grandmother and “disappointed” in the current state of affairs.
Under the current terms of the last will of Lisa Marie Presley, her daughter Riley Keough is to act as trustee of the estate. However, it’s the signature on a 2016 document that transferred trusteeship from Priscilla to Riley that Priscilla Presley is currently contesting. This will almost certainly lead to a legal conflict inside the Presley family, which a source tells ET is disappointing to Riley as she simply wants to fulfill her mother’s wishes.
While a statement from Priscilla Presley following her decision to contest the will stated a desire to keep the family together, the source claims that Riley sees her grandmother’s actions as doing precisely the opposite. The source also says that Riley and Priscilla are not currently close, but Riley is interested in changing that, though this legal issue may stand in the way of that.
Last month Priscilla Presley filed documents to contest the will of Lisa Marie. Prior to 2016, Priscilla was one of the trustees of her daughter’s estate, but a recently discovered 2016 document transfers that responsibility to Lisa Marie’s children Riley and Benjamin Keough. Benjamin passed away in 2020, leaving Riley as the sole trustee.
Priscilla is claiming there are irregularities with this new document, including that the signature on it does not match Lisa Marie’s signature, and that the document was not previously delivered to her, as it should have been under the previous terms of the trust. Priscilla is asking that both she and Riley be set as co-trustees, as the other former trustee along with Priscilla, her business manager Barry Siegel, is planning to resign from the position.
It's unfortunately not uncommon for battles over money, and control of it, to emerge after somebody's death. We recently watched a similar situation play out following the death of actress Anne Heche. Since Heche had no will, there was a conflict regarding who should be in charge of her estate. In the end, her eldest son Homer was placed in charge.
At this point, it seems a judge will need to rule to bring this issue to a close. If the document at issue is seen as valid then things will stay as they are and Riley will remain as trustee of the estate. If there is a desire to keep the family together then hopefully whatever happens the family of Lisa Marie Presley will be able to move past all this once the decision has been made.
