Priscilla Presley is looking to ‘protect’ her three grandchildren after contesting Lisa Marie’s will

Priscilla Presley marked late daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s birthday on Wednesday by promising to protect her three grandchildren and keeping the family together.

The Presley matriarch spoke to Page Six on what would have been Lisa Marie Presley’s 55th birthday.

‘Today would have been Lisa’s 55th birthday. My wish is to protect my three grandchildren and keep our family together.’ 

‘From the first moment I held Lisa in my arms, I’ve protected, loved and guided her, as I have my son. Our hearts are broken, and I am having to learn how to live without my only daughter,’ she said to the outlet.

‘We truly love all of you, and we feel your prayers. Thank you so much for caring so deeply for our family.’ 

Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and wife Priscilla, died on Thursday, January 12 from cardiac arrest at age 54 – two days after making an appearance at the Golden Globes.

Lisa Marie was mother to four children: daughter Riley Keough, 33, with ex-husband Danny Keough, twin daughters Finley Aaron Love Lockwood and Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood, 14, with ex-husband Michael Lockwood, and son Benjamin Keough, who died at age 27 from suicide on July 12, 2020 – which would have been his 28th birthday.

After his passing, Lisa Marie wrote: ‘My beautiful angel, I worshipped the ground you walked on, on this earth and now in Heaven. My heart and soul went with you. The depth of the pain is suffocating and bottomless without you every moment of every day.’

She was laid to rest at Graceland late January. 

Lisa Marie’s estate was put into a trust following her passing. 

The public statement about her desire to protect her family comes after Priscilla, 77, filed legal documents to set aside an amendment to Lisa Marie’s trust she made in 2010 – claiming she was pushed out as a trustee.

Priscilla claims Lisa Marie’s signature is ‘inconsistent’ and says her name was spelled wrong.

The amendment changed the executors of her estate from Priscilla and former business manager Barry Siegel to Lisa Marie’s kids Riley Keough, 33, and the late Ben Keough.

Ben committed suicide, so Riley would be the sole inheritor of Lisa Marie’s estate if the amendment is not made invalid.

The former wife of rock n’ roll legend Elvis Presley also claimed it was never delivered to her.

In addition, the date on the document appears suspicious per Priscilla. 

On January 29, 1993, Lisa Marie executed a revocable living trust.

She amended and completely restated it on January 27, 2010.

‘Lisa Marie Presley appointed her mother, Petitioner, and her former business manager, Barry Siegel, as co-Trustees effective as of the date of the 2010 restatement,’ the court filing read.

‘The 2010 restatement further provides that Petitioner and Barry Siegel shall continue to serve as co-Trustees upon Lisa Marie Presley’s subsequent incapacity and/or death.’ 

‘The Purported 2016 Amendment removed and replaced Petitioner [Priscilla] and Barry as both current and successor Trustees of the Trust with Lisa Marie Presley as the current Trustee and naming Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, Riley Keough (‘Riley’), and son, Benjamin Keough (‘Benjamin’), as successor co-Trustees of the Trust upon Lisa Marie Presley’s incapacity and/or 10 death,’ the court documents stated. 

‘There are many issues surrounding the authenticity and validity of the Purported 2016 Amendment.’

The court filing goes on to add:

The Purported 2016 Amendment was never delivered to Petitioner during Lisa Marie Presley’s lifetime as required by the express terms of the Trust.

 -The date of the Purported Trust Amendment was added via .pdf on March 14.

-The Purported 2016 Amendment, allegedly signed by Lisa Marie Presley, misspells her mother’s name.

-No provisions of the Purported 2016 Amendment appear on the signature page.

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-Lisa Marie Presley’s signature appears inconsistent with her usual and customary signature.

-The Purported 2016 Amendment was neither witnessed nor notarized.

Lisa Marie’s children will inherit Graceland, Elvis Presley’s estate – which is now a tourist attraction – via a trust; she still owned the property despite a rocky financial situation, per The Los Angeles Times.

In 2018, Barry and Lisa Marie fought in court after she claimed he put his own financial interests above hers.

She cut ties with Barry following their fall out. 

She sued him in 2018 claiming he mismanaged her fiances, leading her $100 million trust to dwindle to only $14,000 cash by 2016. 

In Priscilla’s filing, she stated that she found a document existed that had an amendment made on March 11, 2016. 

The lawsuit also claimed she racked up $500,000 in credit card debt, per Reuters. 

Lisa Marie’s lawsuit came after she finalized her divorce from Michael Lockwood, who is the father of her twin daughters – Finley and Harper, 14.

During the divorce proceedings, Lisa Marie claimed she was $16 million in debt, with most of that stemming from unpaid taxes, according to TMZ.

She blamed the root cause of her financial woes on a 2005 deal to sell an 85 percent stake in the Elvis Presley Estate (EPE) to CKX, an entertainment company that also owned the ‘American Idol’ television show.

She received $50 million plus stock in CKX, along with keeping a 15 percent interest in EPE, as well as the title to Graceland, the Associated Press reported at the time.

CKX was later sold to Apollo Global Management for $509 million.

Lisa Marie’s suit claimed that Siegel put his own financial interests ahead of her own, alleging he bought a $9 million English home using the trust’s money.

Meanwhile, Siegel countered in his own lawsuit that Lisa Marie’s financial problems were due to her own missteps. The litigation claimed she had ‘twice squandered’ her inheritance and blamed her ‘spendthrift ways,’ Reuters said.

But Lisa Marie, who was nine when her father died, remained the sole owner of Graceland and her 15 percent stake in EPE likely continues to generate a steady income.

Lisa Marie last year said she earned nearly $104,000 a month from ‘Elvis Enterprises.’

The case against Siegel rumbled on for years.

In 2019 she won a small victory when she was granted a motion by a judge to shut down subpoenas of her bank records, and asked to only turn over her bank records before 2016.

The case was still pending as of 2021.

Lockwood, meanwhile, who was asking her in 2016, when the pair first split, to pay him $263,000 a year so that he can ‘enjoy a lifestyle that is closer to my marital status of living’.

He also sought $40,000 a month in child support.

The pair had a pre-nuptial agreement, but he claimed that he was badly advised by his lawyers.

The case was settled in 2018 in her favor, but in 2021 Lockwood went back to court demanding child support. She had avoided paying him support for years, saying she did not have the means to do so.

However, he demanded she finally pay up – claiming she was flush with cash from her $1 million book deal and the Elvis biopic.

The case was still unsettled at the time of her death.

Last week, the custody battle over Lockwood and Lisa Marie’s twins, Finley and Harper Vivienne, 14, appeared to settle – the 61-year-old guitarist reportedly to get full custody, according to TMZ.

Sources told the outlet that the teenagers have been living with Lockwood since Lisa Marie’s death, after the musician already shared joint custody with her.

The publication claimed that there was discussion that Lisa Marie’s ex Danny Keough might attempt to get custody after moving back into her home to support her full-time.

However, under California law, Lockwood would only have been denied full custody if there were findings of unfitness of his part as he already shared custody, it was