Lisa Marie Presley's posthumous memoir reveals how opioid addiction began after birth of her twins

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Lisa Marie Presley — the only daughter of the legendary Elvis Presley — opened up about her struggle with opioid addiction in her memoir 'From Here to the Great Unknown' which is set to be released posthumously.

The memoir — completed by her daughter Riley Keough — promises to reveal intimate details of Lisa Marie's life, including her painful battle with addiction and the trauma she endured.

How did Lisa Marie Presley fall prey to opioids?

In an excerpt published by People on Thursday, September 26, Lisa Marie reflected on her unexpected spiral into addiction. “You may read this and wonder how, after losing people close to me, I also fell prey to opioids,” she confesses.

It all began innocently enough, with a prescription for opioid painkillers after the birth of her twin daughters Vivienne and Finley. However, what started as a short-term solution soon became a long-term struggle. “For a couple of years it was recreational and then it wasn’t,” she wrote. “It was an absolute matter of addiction, withdrawal in the big leagues.”

Addiction was no stranger to Lisa Marie’s life. Her father Elvis Presley famously battled drug addiction, which ultimately contributed to his untimely death. Similarly, her ex-husband Michael Jackson succumbed to complications from drug use. Lisa Marie herself admitted to experimenting with drugs during her teen years.

Her struggle got worse after the birth of her daughters with ex-husband Michael Lockwood. The prescription opioids meant to help her recover from childbirth soon became a crutch.

When Lisa Marie tragically died in January 2023 at the age of 54 following cardiac arrest, her daughter Riley took on the task of completing the memoir. Riley — who is best known for her role in 'Daisy Jones & The Six' — promised her mother she would help tell her story.

She kept that promise by listening to tapes her mother recorded before her death and working through some of the most painful chapters of their family’s history.

Riley described writing about her mother's addiction in an interview with People. She admitted that her "mom's descent into addiction" was an "incredibly difficult" chapter to write, referring to both her mother’s struggles and the grief that followed the suicide of her brother Benjamin Keough in 2020.

Benjamin, like their mother, had struggled with addiction before taking his own life at the age of 27.

Riley Keough reveals her mother’s complex journey of love and loss

Riley Keough offers a raw, emotional portrayal of her mother while introducing the memoir.

She writes that at times her mom "sounds like she wants to burn the world to the ground; other times, she displays compassion and empathy — all facets of the woman who was my mother, each of those strands, beautiful and broken, forged together in early trauma, crashing together at the end of her life.”

The last decade of Lisa Marie’s life was particularly difficult, Riley shared. Her mother had been through so much pain that she couldn’t view her life from the perspective that others might have. “I don’t think she fundamentally understood how or why her story should be told,” Keough wrote.

“The last 10 years of her life had been so brutally hard that she was only able to look back on everything through that lens,” she continued. “She felt I could have a more holistic view of her life than she could. So, I agreed to help her with it, not thinking much of the commitment, assuming we would write it together over time. A month later, she died.”

While Lisa Marie’s memoir dives into the pain of addiction and loss, it’s also about connection, love, and the hope of helping others. Riley said she hoped that readers would relate to her mother’s experience — even in its darkest moments.

“I hope that in an extraordinary circumstance, people relate to a very human experience of love, heartbreak, loss, addiction and family,” Riley told People. “[My mom] wanted to write a book in the hopes that someone could read her story and relate to her, to know that they’re not alone in the world. Her hope with this book was just human connection. So that’s mine.”

'From Here to the Great Unknown' is set to be released on October 8.