Riley Keough is revealing the lengths her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, went to protect her from the harsh realities of the world. In an emotional interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Keough, 35, shared how she was kept in the dark about the allegations against Michael Jackson, her mother’s ex-husband, during her childhood.
“I had no awareness of it,” Keough explained, discussing the sexual abuse allegations against Jackson, which surfaced during and after his marriage to Presley from 1994 to 1996. “I was never told anything. It’s not something I ever asked as an adult either.”
Keough attributed her lack of knowledge to how her mother chose to protect her and her siblings from adult issues. “It just wasn’t something that came up in our home,” Keough continued. “I imagine my dad was really heartbroken reading the news… and I’m sure he said all kinds of things to my mom that we didn’t know about.”
Lisa Marie Presley and Jackson’s relationship was a passionate and often scrutinized part of her life. Keough fondly remembers her mother’s feelings for Jackson, saying their love for one another was “genuine.” She recalled that whenever her mother went through a breakup, it would deeply affect her. “I’d cry. I’d get mad at her,” Keough admitted. “I was really upset, not knowing what happened.”
In her late mother’s posthumous memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, Presley opened up about her marriage to Jackson, describing it as a deep connection. “Michael said, ‘I’m completely in love with you. I want us to get married and have your children,'” Presley wrote in the memoir, recalling how Jackson had expressed his love.
While Keough may not have understood all the complexities of her mother’s relationships at the time, she remembers the love that was shared. “I was there, and I remember their love,” she said. “Everything else I don’t know because I wasn’t there for.”
Lisa Marie Presley passed away in January 2023 at the age of 54, while Jackson died in 2009 from cardiac arrest. Both have left behind legacies that continue to spark conversation, with Keough’s recent podcast appearance offering an intimate glimpse into her life and the protective environment her mother strived to create.
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