Presley family turmoil revealed in more lawsuit bombshells

In February 2024, we broke the news over at The Daily Beast that Priscilla Presley was being sued in Florida by a former business partner, Brigitte Kruse.

A year later, we told you that we had spoken with Kruse, and she had shared with us some of the bombshells she would be coming forward with regarding Priscilla.

You have no doubt been witnessing those explosions going off in the press in recent days.

Last month, it was a new $50 million lawsuit from Kruse filed in Los Angeles, and in it Kruse made the allegation that when Lisa Marie Presley fell ill in January 2023 after attending the Golden Globes, Priscilla made the decision to take her daughter off life support, even though Lisa’s daughter Riley Keough was rushing to get to LA on a plane from Seattle, and Lisa had signed a directive that she was not to be taken off life support in just such a situation.

The lawsuit even included a copy of that directive as an exhibit so the press and public could see Lisa’s signature (and exclamation points) with their own eyes.

Even media outlets that have often portrayed Priscilla in a favorable light took notice: Not only was this a stunning, damning claim, but it came with receipts.

It took a little while, but the National Enquirer on its September 8 issue didn’t mince words about it, calling Kruse’s allegation the “most shocking charge in Hollywood history.”

It will be interesting to see what sort of superlatives that publication comes up with now that Kruse, this week, filed an amended complaint, and added the allegation that Priscilla also drove Elvis Presley to an early grave.

But once again, it’s the receipts that Kruse has attached to the document that are getting the most attention. The amended complaint has no less than 40 exhibits attached, including leaked pages from Priscilla’s forthcoming post-Elvis memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis (in which Priscilla does discuss ordering her daughter to be taken off life support before Riley arrives), as well as texts and emails from Priscilla to back up the allegations that Kruse is making.

But the thing that’s getting the most attention is a letter from Riley to her grandmother in the days after Lisa’s death. It reveals a lot about the turmoil between Lisa and Priscilla, and backs up Kruse’s allegation that Priscilla knew, when she took her daughter off life support, that Lisa was considering suing her.

Subject: Nona

Hello,

Unfortunately Nona as you are taking me to court I am being forced to defend my mother’s wishes legally and publicly which would not have been my choice.

It is really hurtful that after years of me trying to resolve your and my mother's broken relationship and restore our family, you are taking me, of all people to court. I have protected you from lawsuits from my mother, often advocating for you and always tried to keep everyone operating out of love. Even a few weeks before my mother passed she wanted to sue you again and you called me for help. I advised her so strongly against it, which resulted in a fight between me and her. But as you know she chose to listen to me and not sue you. I believed then and now, lawsuits among family members have no place, but here we are.

I must also share with you that I found being called about the will, less than 24 hours after my mother passed and getting emails from lawyers before my mother was even buried incredibly heartbreaking. It was very upsetting that I was forced to find a lawyer to represent me and my sisters and my mother’s wishes within days of her passing. I assume that you are being advised to take these actions by your representatives, but you must know that this chosen path can only further estrange our family which is really sad.

My hope is that you are being poorly advised and this is not actually coming from you. But what I don’t understand is why there is a narrative that this massive falling out between you and my mother in 2016 didn’t occur. My mother very loudly and clearly asserted to many people including you, that she felt you had financially and personally betrayed her and as a result she was taking you off of the trust and replacing you with my brother and me. If you are trying to remove me from the estate under the guise that you don’t remember the falling out about the promenade trust and her finances, it doesn’t make any sense because you were still estranged from my mother at the time of her death, all as a result of this same falling out. I am now being forced to fight you in court to protect my mother and my mother’s wishes for her estate which you know goes against my nature.

One thing that definitely caught our eye was the reference to the 2016 “falling out” between Lisa and her mother, and we wanted to add a little context to that.

When we spoke to Lisa, it was 2015 and a few months after her attempted showdown with Scientology leader David Miscavige. At that point, she not only told us that she was finally finished with the church, but she also assured us that she had told her mother Priscilla and daughter Riley that they needed to leave Scientology to back her up, and they had.

Now, we learn from Riley’s letter that just a year later, in 2016, Lisa and her mother had a massive falling out. As Kruse explains in the lawsuit, this was caused when Lisa realized that Priscilla had mismanaged her finances, and Lisa amended the terms of the Promenade Trust and cut her mother out of it.

Lisa’s life was then caught up in a bitter divorce with Michael Lockwood, as well as reports that she had fallen back into drug use. We didn’t hear from her, but we couldn’t help wondering, had she slipped back into Scientology? Had her mother and her daughter done so as well?

We are still unsure whether Lisa got involved in Scientology again after we talked with her in 2015, but we have seen pretty strong evidence that Priscilla did go back into the church, most glaringly when she wore a Scientology cross during her 2023 interview with Sofia Coppola as publicity for Coppola’s movie Priscilla.

Based on our conversations with Kruse for our February story, we believe there are more bombshells coming, as well as more information about the Presley women and Scientology.

One sign of how hard these bombs are landing is the reaction from Priscilla’s legendary entertainment lawyer, Marty Singer, whose responses are getting more and more unhinged. Last time, we said that we’d rarely seen him as worked up. But now, he’s positively gone over the edge, telling People magazine…

“Priscilla did not have anything to do with the assassination of JFK, she did not cover up Area 51, she did not fake the moon landing, and she is not secretly keeping Bigfoot locked in a cabin in Canada. Take off the aluminum foil hat and face reality. This lawsuit concerns Ms. Presley’s claims against Ms. Kruse (and her co-conspirators) in which she alleges that Ms. Kruse engaged in a relentless and calculated campaign of elder abuse and fraud in order to take control of Ms. Presley’s finances for her own benefit. Ms. Kruse’s allegations are absurd and despicable, but unfortunately, are not surprising. Ms. Presley looks forward to holding Ms. Kruse and her co-conspirators liable for their wrongful acts.”

That’s how you respond to allegations that have receipts attached as exhibits? Wow.

Meanwhile, Priscilla and Riley put out a joint statement that they are standing together against Kruse’s allegations: “We are aware of the latest allegations from Brigitte Kruse. These claims are not only untrue but also deeply hurtful. Our family is, and always has been, united in love and respect for one another. Our shared priority remains honoring Lisa Marie’s memory and protecting Elvis’ legacy with dignity. We will not allow outside voices to divide us or to diminish the strength of our bond as a family.”

Yeah, that sounds like them. Sure.

This new lawsuit has only just begun.

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