Priscilla after Elvis: between acting, fashion and the weight of death

“With Elvis , my life was his life. He must have been happy. My problems were secondary “. This is how I described Priscilla Wagner her marriage to the king of rock in 1978, a year after his death and five after his divorce. By then, and in a revealing text published in People magazine, Presley’s only wife had already made public certain details of their relationship.

And the union between Priscilla and Elvis was not at all idyllic. The couple met when he was 24 and she was just 14, while the musician was in Germany as a member of the U.S. Army. . Wagner was also American. His stepfather was an Air Force officer and spent many years of his life moving from city to city.

At the time of their first meeting, Priscilla was a girl in ninth grade. But that wasn’t a problem for the singer. “Something about his southern upbringing had taught him that he had to keep the “right” girl to marry. I was that girl “, he recalled in the same magazine, where he also clarified that nothing sexual had ever happened between them during their minority. “At the same time, he transformed me into his wife. I wore the clothes, hairstyle and makeup of her careful choice. And at 16, they were already living together in the Memphis mansion.

Thus, and almost as if by inertia, the young woman would become the companion of the king of rock for almost two decades of his life. An era in chiaroscuro, full of jealousy and excess, which reveals another facet of the musical idol who conquered the masses, and who today appeared on the big screen under the direction of Sofia Coppola.

In Priscilla (2023) -based on Elvis and me, Wagner’s autobiography that became a bestseller, the story unfolds through the eyes of its protagonist from his meeting with the musician to his subsequent divorce. However, Priscilla’s life after Elvis goes beyond the “wife of” label.

“They hated me for marrying him, they hated me for divorcing him. Having people criticize you without knowing that you are desperately trying to be a good wife, a good mother and a good partner has been a difficult road,” she summarized in an interview.

During their marriage, Elvis never approved of Priscilla’s work. Despite this, she has always shown an interest in fields such as dancing and modeling. After the death of her ex-husband in 1973, she entered the fashion world with her friend and stylist. Olivia Bis. The project was a store called Bis & Beau, which, during its activity, has cultivated important clients such as Cher, Liza Minelli and Natalie Wood.

In total, the store only lasted three years. However, Priscilla’s influence as a true fashion icon was already a fact. Even as one of the greatest references of female rockabilly, both in her makeup and hairstyle and in the clothing style she wore.

This status was retained for the remainder of his career. Always fashionable, Priscilla’s presence monopolized the covers for her interpretation of the current moment: in the 60s, she adopted a more bohemian style, while in the 90s, she played with much more androgynous and ad hoc outfits. with the evolution he adopted the aesthetics of those years.

With all, It was not strange that sooner or later Priscilla was encouraged to enter the world of acting. This is how her career as an actress and television face began in the 80s. Her first television appearance was as a host of the show These amazing animals from ABC, where the eccentric habits and behaviors of the animal kingdom were analyzed.

During these same years, he began working on television series such as The guy who falls just in time (1983) and Dallas (1983), in the latter for a period of five years. He also participated in other 90s productions with appearances in some episodes, such as Tales from the Crypt (1993)Melrose Place (nineteen ninety-six)Touched by an angel (1997) and Rotation city (1999).

His success on television translated into film roles, in films such as The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and the comic saga The naked gun as Jane Spencer. Additionally, in 1988, she launched her perfume line and worked as the director of Metro Goldwyn-Mayer in 2000. He was also on the program Dancing with the starswhere he was able to show off his dancing talent.

However, and After Elvis’ grandmother and father died, Priscilla had to take the reins of the artist’s estate, at least until her only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, was old enough. . Thus, he devoted a good part of his energies to the administration of the musician’s legacy in a work which bore enormous fruit.

One of his first decisions was the opening of Graceland , Elvis’ Memphis mansion where they spent their married years, to the public. Currently, the value of the artist’s assets is estimated to be around $300 million.

For Priscilla, managing this fortune is a serious task. . Despite everything they went through together, their relationship ended on good terms, and they even remained very good friends until the singer’s death. “I’m fulfilling dreams that Elvis Presley never got to realize and correcting the lies that people thought about Elvis. It’s about keeping his legacy true to what it was and I feel a great responsibility in this regard,” he told the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald a few months ago.

The immense affection they had for Elvis despite their separation made his death a very hard blow to Priscilla’s life. So much so that in her autobiography she writes that with the departure of her ex-husband, something also died in her.

“Yes I left him but it wasn’t because I didn’t love him he was the love of my life but we broke up because his lifestyle was very different from mine and I think that any woman can understand that. Even so, we are still very close,” he commented in Venice after the premiere of his biopic in the city. And he added: “We never abandoned each other. “I just wanted to make it clear.”

Although she had other romances – among them, with Marco Garibaldi and the musician Tom Jones -, decided not to remarry. “I just don’t think he could handle that. To be honest, I never wanted to marry after him. I never had a desire. “No one could match him,” he confessed. One such gesture is that to this day he publicly uses the last name Presley.

But Elvis is not the only loss that marked his life. This is what he said in an interview with Piers Morgan for British television: “It was unbearable. I lost my mother, my grandson and my daughter “.

In early 2023, Lisa Marie Presley, his only daughter with the king of rock, died from an intestinal obstruction caused by a stomach reduction. It was the first time he spoke of his grief.

On January 10, a few days before her death, Priscilla and Lisa attended the Golden Globes together. There, her mother already noticed that something was wrong. “We had just arrived and on the stairs I tripped a bit because I was wearing very high heels. We started laughing really hard and we hadn’t even drunk yet. He said, “My God, Mom, you can’t even drink. » “It was fun, it’s a fun memory,” he shared. “When we sat down and ordered our drinks, he said to me, ‘Mom, I have to go, my stomach hurts really bad.’ I said, “Sure, are you okay?” and she said, “Yes, yes, I have to go.” Then I hugged her, she continued on her way and I followed the mine, and that was the last hug I gave him.

Two days later, he received the fateful call from his ex-son-in-law, Danny Keough. “I got in the car, but he was already dead. I still can’t believe it. I wouldn’t wish this on any mother. It’s always a shock that he is not with us.

Before the death of their daughter, both were already going through another complex situation. In 2022, Benjamin Storm Keough, one of his grandchildren, committed suicide at the age of 27. . “Losing Ben was the hardest thing for her. She was the love of his life, he adored her. I would have done anything for him. (…) We were in Memphis, sitting in the following, and she told me she didn’t know if she wanted to stay alive. “He told me he was still in mourning.”

In addition to the losses that surrounded her, Priscilla’s health also took a hit . At the age of 62, and after having undergone a series of cosmetic surgeries, she suffered facial deformation due to industrial silicone injections. The person responsible was an Argentine surgeon already accused of professional misconduct in the United States and also denounced by the same actress.