As the mother of Elvis's only child, Priscilla was entitled to half the income from their shared property, as well as a portion of Presley's publishing royalties and alimony in the divorce settlement.
She also received an upfront cash payment of $725,000, which is the equivalent of around $5 million (£4m) today.
Priscilla could have easily lived a life of luxury on her hefty divorce settlement. However, she opted to launch the first of her many money-making ventures the very same year that she separated from The King.
She founded luxury Beverly Hills fashion boutique Bis & Beau (pictured) with her long-time friend and stylist, Olivia Bis.
Famed for her big bouffant hair, dramatic winged eyeliner, and babydoll dresses, the ever-glam Priscilla was a style icon in her prime, so it’s only natural that she capitalised on her passion for fashion.
Along with Bis, Priscilla designed the clothes stocked in the now-defunct store, which once counted Hollywood stars like Cher and Natalie Wood among its clientele.
Priscilla was appointed trustee of the Elvis Presley estate in 1979 following the death of Presley's father Vernon. Unfortunately, her new position came with the burden of handling the massive debts.
Elvis was in debt at the time of his death, despite his lifetime earnings reportedly sitting somewhere between $100 million and $1 billion. As mentioned, he was worth $5 million ($27/£21m today) when he died, but he owed double that figure to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
In an effort to turn things around, Priscilla established Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) in 1981. The new company set up lucrative merchandising, publishing, and licensing deals, and transformed Presley's former Memphis home Graceland into a booming tourist attraction.
Thanks to Priscilla’s sharp business acumen, the estate was debt-free again by 1993 and worth $100 million – around $208 million (£162m) when adjusted for inflation into 2024 money.
Priscilla began studying acting while married to Elvis and made her screen debut in 1983, when she featured in the TV movie Love is Forever. Her big break came that very same year when she was cast as Jenna Wade in American soap opera Dallas.
After departing Dallas, her fame and fortune were further boosted by scoring the role of Jane Spencer (pictured) in The Naked Gun movie trilogy between 1988 and 1994.
Today, she boasts 17 credits on her IMDb profile, compared to Elvis's 31. Her most recent project was a voice role in the animated comedy series Agent Elvis.
In 1985, Priscilla offered fans an unprecedented look inside her rocky relationship with Elvis by publishing her autobiography Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll.
Last year, acclaimed director Sofia Coppola adapted the best-selling book into a biopic titled Priscilla, which Presley served as an executive producer on.
The biopic isn't Priscilla's only foray into production. She's also produced two acclaimed investigative documentaries about animal trafficking and trophy hunting in Africa: Land of the Free: Animal Trafficking Redefined in 2020 and Land of the Free: Out of the Shadows in 2022.
As if fashion icon, entrepreneur, actress, author, and producer weren't enough strings to her bow, Priscilla also forayed into the fragrance industry in 1990 with the release of her debut scent Moments (pictured). Her second perfume Experiences was released in 1993.
Indian Summer, her most popular perfume, hit shelves in 1995, swiftly followed by Roses & More in 1998, which garnered rave reviews.
Her final collection of scents, again called Indian Summer, was released in 2000 and sold out almost instantly.
In July, Priscilla filed a lawsuit against her former business partners, including memorabilia auctioneers Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko, for financial elder abuse. She is reportedly seeking $1 million (£783k) in damages.
Her lawsuit claims that the managers of Priscilla Presley Partners, LLC, had “misappropriated” funds of more than $1 million.
A statement from Priscilla's lawyer, Martin Singer, read: “This action arises out of a meticulously planned and abhorrent scheme by the defendants in this action to prey on an older woman by gaining her trust, isolating her from the most important people in her life, and duping her into believing that they would take care of her—personally and financially—while their real goal was to drain her of every last penny she had."
Kruse sued Priscilla back in October 2023, claiming that she illegally walked away from their business partnership around the time of her daughter Lisa Marie’s death.
Born on 1 February 1968, Lisa Marie Presley was the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She died from a double heart attack on 12 January 2023 at just 54 years old.
As you’ll soon discover, Lisa Marie had far more in common with her late father than just a striking physical resemblance, and there are a few tragic parallels in their lives.
According to reports, Lisa Marie was millions of dollars in debt at the time of her death. So let's delve into how she made her fortune, how she lost it, and what happened to her estate after her passing.
Following in her famous father’s footsteps, Lisa Marie released her debut album, To Whom It May Concern, in 2003.
This was followed by Now What in 2005. While both albums performed well in the charts, her third album Storm & Grace wasn't released until 2012.
Lisa Marie collaborated with some of music’s biggest names, including the likes of Kylie Minogue and Coldplay.
She also appeared in Michael Jackson's You Are Not Alone music video in 1995, a year after the couple controversially married.
Despite a moderately successful music career, most of Lisa Marie’s former fortune came from a trust fund set up by her late father, which saw her inherit the majority of the Elvis Presley estate and Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) when she turned 25.
When Elvis died, the estate was in debt, but thanks to Priscilla Presley's tireless efforts to turn things around, the fund was worth a staggering $100 million by the time Lisa Marie inherited it in 1993. That equates to around $208 million (£162m) in today's money.
Rather than inherit the money directly, Lisa Marie opted to set up a revocable living trust and appointed a man named Barry Siegel.
In 2005, Siegel decided to sell 85% of EPE in a deal that pocketed Lisa Marie just $40 million after taxes. That’s around $62 million (£49m) today.
Shockingly, most of the money from the Elvis estate had disappeared by 2015. Lisa Marie had just $14,000 (£9k) left in her trust and was saddled with $500,000 (£321k) in credit card debt.
She fired Siegel in 2015 and filed a lawsuit against him two years later, claiming he'd squandered $100 million (£64m) of her fortune. Siegel countered that Lisa Marie's excessive spending had put the estate in debt.
This has haunting similarities with the situation her father found himself in decades earlier. Elvis lost the bulk of his fortune due to wild spending sprees and the mishandling of his money by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, as depicted in Baz Luhrmann's movie Elvis.
Though Lisa Marie's stake in EPE was sold in 2005, she still curated a Graceland exhibit titled Elvis... Through His Daughter’s Eyes in 2012, which gave visitors a glimpse inside life with her father.
The display included rare family photographs, home movies, and memorabilia from Lisa Marie’s childhood. Also on display were what Lisa Marie described as her father's "most amazing clothes ever".
Following reports that she was bankrupt, 2019 saw Lisa Marie pen the foreword to Harry Nelson’s book The United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain.
In the emotional essay, the late star confessed that she was "grateful to be alive" after becoming addicted to prescription painkillers in 2008 after the birth of her twin daughters. Elvis also battled prescription drug addiction, which is believed to have contributed to his premature death.
Lisa Marie's brief essay wasn't her only foray into writing...
It was reported in 2019 that Lisa Marie had signed a book deal with Gallery Books that was worth somewhere between $3 million (£2.3m) and $4 million (£3.1m).
The tell-all autobiography was set to reveal intimate details about her marriage to Michael Jackson, though it's unclear now if it will ever be released in light of Lisa Marie's premature death.
Lisa Marie was married and divorced four times throughout her life. She married her first husband Danny Keough, with whom she had two children, in 1988. The couple split in 1994, and the King of Rock and Roll's daughter married the King of Pop later that very same year. Her union with Michael Jackson lasted just two years.
Her love life hit the headlines again when she tied the knot with actor (and Elvis Presley superfan) Nicolas Cage in 2002. The couple filed for divorce just three months later.
Finally, she wed music producer Michael Lockwood in 2006. The pair welcomed twin daughters in 2008 and split eight years later.
Lisa Marie finalised her long and costly divorce from musician Michael Lockwood (pictured) in 2021.
The former couple, who shared twin daughters Harper and Finley, separated in 2016 and were locked in a bitter custody feud for years. But shortly before Lisa Marie's death, the couple reportedly agreed to share custody of the girls, with Lisa Marie paying her ex $6,000 (£4.8k) per month in child support.
Lisa Marie was reportedly paying a staggering $400,000 (£269.7k) a month to detox from alcohol, painkillers, and antidepressants following her 2016 split from Lockwood (pictured together).
The troubled star hit rock bottom in 2016, with Lockwood telling the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services that she was "paranoid and hallucinatory" and would take up to 80 opiate pills per day.
However, an anonymous source told Radar that Lisa Marie "finally realised that she was killing herself and decided that she didn’t want to end up like her dad".
In a bid to get sober, Lisa Marie reportedly hired a private detox team and checked into the Church of Scientology as a rehab facility.
Though Lisa Marie was in debt when she died, she reportedly took out three life insurance policies shortly before her death, making her estate "flush with cash", according to a 2023 documentary TMZ Investigates: Lisa Marie Presley: Unending Tragedy.
Lisa Marie’s three daughters Riley, Harper, and Finley (pictured here with Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley) will now split the $30 million (£24.4m) estate between them. It was also confirmed that Graceland – the infamous Memphis home of Elvis that Lisa Marie inherited when her father died – will also go to her children via a trust.
However, Priscilla contested a key part of her late daughter’s will...
In January 2023, Priscilla legally challenged a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s will. Priscilla and Lisa Marie’s former business manager Barry Siegel were initially named co-trustees of the late star’s estate but were replaced by Lisa’s children Riley and Benjamin Keough in 2016. As Benjamin died in 2020, Riley (pictured here with Lisa Marie and Priscilla) became the sole trustee of the estate.
Priscilla called into question the "authenticity and validity" of Lisa Marie’s signature on the 2016 amendment. Additionally, the change was allegedly not witnessed and Priscilla claimed she was never notified that she was no longer the trustee, which she argued made it an "invalid modification".
However, the dispute has now been "resolved," according to Priscilla. It's been revealed that Riley paid her grandmother a $1 million (£783k) settlement to become the sole trustee of her mother's estate. The agreement also involves paying Priscilla $100,000 (£82k) annually as a "special adviser" and covering her $400,000 (£328k) legal fees.
Born on 29 May 1989, Riley Keough is the first child of Lisa Marie Presley and musician Danny Keough.
Her estimated net worth is $20 million (£16m), though this figure is likely much higher now she has been named as the sole trustee of the Elvis Presley estate.
So how does the oldest grandchild of Elvis make her money?
Evidently blessed with the Presley clan's good looks, Riley Keough began modelling at 15 years old, appearing in a runway show for Dolce & Gabbana in Italy.
Over the years, she’s posed for high-end fashion houses like Dior and Chanel, as well as gracing the magazine covers of international editions of Vogue, Elle, and Bustle.
While music might have seemed the obvious career for Keough, she knew from a young age that she wanted to be an actress.
In a 2021 interview with The New York Times, she explained: "I always wanted to be in film. I knew that. I grew up in a family of musicians, so it was also something that I wasn't around a lot. Film was everything, and I was very fascinated with people and human behavior."
Keough made her silver screen debut in the 2010 biopic The Runaways. Her career highlights include the action-packed blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road and the star-studded 2020 crime thriller The Devil All the Time, which also featured Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Sebastian Stan.
Keough is shown here with the Mad Max: Fury Road cast.
Despite her preference for acting, Keough has still inherited the Presley singing gene, and has even recorded backing vocals for pop star Lady Gaga.
In 2021, she told the Just for Variety podcast: "My voice isn’t like Elvis. But I’ll tell you what, I just realized recently that I do have kind of a country voice."
Fans got the chance to hear Keough's vocal talents when she played troubled singer-songwriter Daisy Jones in series Daisy Jones & the Six, which is based on the best-selling book by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Within hours of its release on 3 March 2023, the series had hit the number-one spot on Amazon Prime Video’s Top 10 list in the US. Meanwhile, the show's accompanying album Aurora reached number one on iTunes in the States.
In 2022, Keough stepped behind the camera to co-direct indie movie War Pony with her friend Gina Gammell (pictured).
The coming-of-age drama follows the stories of two young Oglala Lakota boys growing up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
The acclaimed movie scored awards at the prestigious Cannes, Motovun, and Munich film festivals. Not bad for a first-time movie director...
So how does this multi-talented star spend her fortune?
In 2015, Keough married Australian stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen. The couple, who met on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road, tied the knot in California’s scenic Napa Valley wine country, with Keough describing the ceremony to HELLO! as "the most beautiful, amazing, fun day and night".
The bride stunned in a bohemian-style couture gown by luxury designer Delphine Manivet. The star-studded guestlist included Dakota Johnson, Cara Delevingne, and John Travolta, while Twilight star Kristen Stewart read a poem during the service.
The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Tupelo, in 2022.
Born on 21 October 1992, Benjamin Keough was the son of Lisa Marie Presley (both pictured here) and Danny Keough, and the only grandson of Elvis Presley.
Tragically, he took his own life in July 2020 after a battle with depression. He was just 27 years old.
With his piercing eyes and jet-black hair, Benjamin, who was reportedly worth around $1 million (£783k) at the time of his death, bore an uncanny physical resemblance to Elvis.
Benjamin shared his grandfather's passion for music, too. In 2009, it looked as if the budding star was set to follow in Elvis’ footsteps when he signed a $5 million ($7.4m/£5.7m in today's money) recording deal with Universal.
But while Benjamin spent time in the studio and performed at a music festival in 2011, he never actually released any albums or music.
The troubled star battled depression and addiction throughout his life, and it appears that being so similar to his grandfather might have been more of a curse than a blessing.
His close friend Brandon Howard told People that the pressure to live up to the Presley name "absolutely" contributed to Benjamin's struggles.
Speaking shortly after Keough died, Howard explained: "That kind of pressure is definitely a part of what happened... It’s almost like you’re pressured into having to be a musician, having to be an actor."
Benjamin's mother Lisa Marie has also spoken about this pressure, describing the Presley name as "a hindrance": "Yeah, it helped me get a foot in the door [of the music industry]. But you have to hold your own. And again, it's a hindrance, because a lot of attention and pressure is on me."
Finally, on to Lisa Marie's youngest daughters Harper and Finley, who she shares with ex-husband Michael Lockwood.
The twins, who were born in October 2008, are largely kept out of the spotlight at the moment, so not much is known about their lives.
However, the teens did make a rare public appearance (pictured) at the Elvis premiere, along with the rest of their famous clan in 2022.
Now discover how Elvis made and spent his money, and why he should have been much richer