Lisa Marie Presley Still Blames Herself ‘Every Single Day’ Two Years After Son’s Suicide

It’s been two years since Benjamin Keough, the only grandson of the legendary Elvis Presley, tragically committed suicide at the age of 27. His mother Lisa Marie Presley still blames herself for what happened “every single day.”

Lisa Marie Opens Up About Benjamin’s Suicide

Daily Mail reported that Benjamin committed suicide by shooting himself in his family’s mansion in July of 2020. He’d gotten in an argument with his girlfriend. It was later revealed that he had both alcohol and cocaine in his system at the time of his death. 

After he died, Lisa Marie’s spokesperson told Entertainment Tonight that she was “completely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated but trying to stay strong for her 11-year-old twins and her oldest daughter, Riley. She adored that boy. He was the love of her life.”

In honor of National Grief Awareness day last week, Lisa Marie wrote an essay for People Magazine about her son’s suicide in the hopes of helping others going through the same devastating experience. 

“I can understand why people may want to avoid you once a terrible tragedy has struck. Especially a parent losing their child because it is truly your worst nightmare,” wrote Lisa Marie, 54. “I can recall a couple of times in my life where I knew parents who lost their child and while I could be there for them when it happened, I avoided them after and never bothered to follow up with them because they quite literally became a representative of my biggest fear.”

“I also low-key judged them, and I swore I’d never do whatever it was that I felt they either did or neglected in their parental actions and choices with their child,” she admitted. 

Related: Elvis’s Daughter Lisa Marie Breaks Silence On New Biopic

Lisa Marie’s Experienced ‘More Than Anyone’s Fair Share’ Of Grief

Lisa Marie went on to say that she’s experienced “more than anyone’s fair share” of grief during her life. She lost her father Elvis when she was only nine years old. She then said that her “beautiful, beautiful son” was “so much like his grandfather on so many levels that he actually scared me.” 

One of the hardest things that Lisa Marie has had to deal with in the wake of her son’s suicide is blaming herself for his death. 

“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 continued. 

Lisa Marie then offered some advice for anyone who hasn’t dealt with a similar loss, but knows someone who has. 

“Ask them how they’re doing, ask them to talk about their person, yes! We DO want to talk about them. That’s how we keep them alive in our hearts, that’s how they don’t get forgotten, that is what keeps us alive as well,” she advised. “And do me a favor, don’t tell them that ‘you can’t imagine’ their pain. The truth is, oh yes you can, you just don’t want to.”

Related: Nancy Sinatra Reveals What It Was Like To Work With Elvis Presley

Lisa Marie Keeps Going For Her Daughters

Lisa Marie explained that she keeps going for the sake of her three daughters: Riley Keough, 33; and twins Finley Aaron Love Lockwood and Harper Vivienne Anne Lockwood, 13. 

“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,” she confessed. “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.”

“My and my three daughters’ lives as we knew it were completely detonated and destroyed by his death,” she added. “We live in this every. Single. Day.”

Lisa Marie concluded her essay by saying that it was “written with all of my love and my pain.”

No mother should have to go through what Lisa Marie has in the past two years. Please join us in saying a prayer for her and her family as they continue to grieve this loss.