In her posthumous memoir, "From Here to the Great Unknown," Lisa Marie Presley shares deeply personal details about her profound grief following the death of her son, Benjamin Keough. The memoir, completed by her daughter, actress Riley Keough, after Presley's own passing in January 2023, offers a stark and moving glimpse into the lengths to which Presley went to stay connected to her son after his untimely death.
Benjamin Keough, the son of Lisa Marie and musician Danny Keough, took his own life in 2020 at the age of 27. Devastated by his passing, Presley revealed that she kept Benjamin's body at her home in a casita - a small building separate from the main residence - for two months while grappling with the decision of where to bury him. "There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately," she wrote, adding that she found an empathetic funeral home owner who agreed to bring Benjamin's body to her.
Presley's choice to keep her son close during this period was rooted in her struggle to let go. She described how she cared for him in the casita, saying, "I got so used to him, caring for him and keeping him there." The room where Benjamin's body was kept was maintained at a temperature of 55 degrees to help preserve it. This unusual decision was one of many that Presley made as she tried to come to terms with her loss.
In an attempt to honor Benjamin's memory, Presley and Riley Keough decided to get matching tattoos. They called in a tattoo artist to replicate Benjamin's tattoos: he had his sister Riley's name on his collarbone and his mother's name inked on his hand. In a surreal moment, Presley reportedly asked the tattoo artist to look at her son's body in the casita to see the exact placement and style of the tattoos. Riley reflected on this moment in the memoir, saying, "I've had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five."
Presley was acutely aware of how unusual her actions might appear to others. "I think it would scare the living f-king piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that. But not me," she wrote. Her decision to keep Benjamin's body close for so long was, in her words, driven by a need to fight to remain alive for her surviving children, including Riley and her twin daughters, Harper and Finley Lockwood.
The family eventually held a funeral for Benjamin in Malibu, with Indian-American author and spiritual leader Deepak Chopra leading the ceremony. Benjamin was later laid to rest at Graceland, alongside his legendary grandfather, Elvis Presley. After Lisa Marie Presley's own death earlier this year, she was also buried next to her son at the iconic Memphis estate.
Riley Keough's contributions to the memoir also shed light on Benjamin's struggle with mental health issues in the time leading up to his death. She revealed that they found a text message Benjamin had sent to his mother weeks before his passing, where he expressed concern about his mental well-being, saying, "I think something's wrong with me mentally or something like that. I think I have a mental health issue." Riley noted the tragedy of his late realization, saying, "It's heartbreaking to me that he only realized he might need help just two weeks before he killed himself."
The memoir paints a vivid picture of Lisa Marie Presley's anguish in the aftermath of her son's death, describing how she felt she had to "fight" to stay alive for her children despite her overwhelming grief. Riley reflected on her mother's emotional state, stating that although Presley died of natural causes - specifically a cardiac arrest brought on by a small bowel obstruction - it was clear that she had also died of a "broken heart" over Benjamin's death.
Lisa Marie's revelations in "From Here to the Great Unknown" provide a raw and unfiltered look at her struggle with the unimaginable pain of losing a child. Her daughter, Riley, described the profound impact this tragedy had on their family, emphasizing how her mother tried to find the strength to carry on for her remaining children despite the emotional toll.
