Priscilla Presley Says Taking Daughter Lisa Marie Presley Off Life Support Was 'the Second Saddest Day of My Life': 'It Was Unbearable'

In her new memoir, Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis, Priscilla Presley opened up about the moment she took her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, off life support.

"It was the second saddest day of my life, other than losing Elvis,” Priscilla told a media outlet regarding the day Lisa Marie died. “It took a long time to come to terms with the fact that Lisa was gone.”

Lisa Marie tragically passed away on January 12, 2023, from a small bowel obstruction that resulted from a bariatric surgery she’d previously had. She was 54 when she died.

Danny Keough, Lisa Marie’s ex-husband, found her unresponsive at her house and called Priscilla to meet them at the hospital.

"We were there all day long," Priscilla shared. "Lisa really wasn't breathing, so she was on the ventilator. For hours we were there waiting, hoping and praying until the doctor came in and said, 'Priscilla, I'm so sorry, she's gone.' We just couldn't believe it — didn't want to believe it. It was hard on all of us, it still is."

In the book, Priscilla said she knew from “the first moment” she went into Lisa Marie’s hospital room that “she was gone.”

“She was hooked to a machine that was breathing for her, and she had a heartbeat,” she wrote. “There was little brain activity. Her spirit, always so vital, wasn’t there. Riley later told us that while she was still on her flight, she had felt her mother’s spirit pass. But none of us was ready to give up yet.”

After waiting, an emergency alarm rang from Lisa Marie’s room, resulting in a "code blue" situation.

“The next thing I remember is the doctor talking to me,” Priscilla shared. “He asked me what I wanted him to do. They had restarted Lisa’s heart, but there was no guarantee it would keep beating. I asked the doctor, 'What kind of life will she have if we keep her on that machine?'"

After the doctor informed her there would be “no quality of life at all,” Priscilla made the hard decision to take her off the machine.

“It was unbearable,” she said. “I began to sob. I don’t remember falling. I know that Ivy caught me. After that, everything went dark. I can’t remember. I don’t want to remember.”

Priscilla also talked about losing her grandson Benjamin Keough, after he died by suicide at age 27 in 2020. She also touched on helping her son Navarone get clean from a drug problem.

“It hasn’t been easy at all,” Priscilla noted of her family. “But you have to find strength.”

With Navarone now in a “good place” and Priscilla being a great-grandmother, she said she’s “happy” that “everyone is doing well.”