Lisa Marie Presley is getting candid about the loss of her late son Benjamin Keough.
In an essay for People magazine to mark National Grief Awareness Day on Tuesday, Elvis Presley's 54-year-old daughter admitted that her life was "destroyed" after her son took his own life in July, 2020, at age 27. What has been keeping her going since then are her 13-year-old twins Finley and Harper, whom she has with ex-husband Michael Lockwood.
"It's a real choice to keep going, one that I have to make every single day and one that is constantly challenging to say the least ... But I keep going for my girls," Presley wrote.
"I keep going because my son made it very clear in his final moments that taking care of his little sisters and looking out for them were on the forefront of his concerns and his mind. He absolutely adored them and they him," she continued. "My and my three daughters' lives as we knew it were completely detonated and destroyed by his death. We live in this every. Single. Day."
Lisa Marie, who shared Ben and her daughter Riley Keough with her first husband Danny Keough, admitted she blamed herself for what happened and turned to "support groups" to help her process her grief.
"I already battle with and beat myself up tirelessly and chronically, blaming myself every single day, and that's hard enough to now live with, but others will judge and blame you too, even secretly or behind your back which is even more cruel and painful on top of everything else," she wrote.
"This is where finding others who have experienced a similar loss can be the only way to go," she added. "Support groups that have your specific kind of loss in common. I go to them, and I hold them for other bereaved parents at my home."
Ben died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the early hours of July 12, 2020. The incident took place at the family's luxury home in Calabasas, California. Days later, Riley remembered her brother in a heartfelt post shared on Instagram.
"Mornings are the hardest. I forget you're gone. I can't cry because of the fear that I will never stop. A pain that's new to me. You. There are no words for you," she wrote. "Angel is the closest I could think of. Pure light. Baby brother. Best friend. Wild man. Intellectual. Witness to my life. Twin soul. Protector. Too sensitive for this harsh world."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.