In 1963, Elvis went to Hollywood to film Viva Las Vegas opposite Ann-Margret — and she was not just another co-star. She was a genuine star in her own right, a dancer and singer the press had nicknamed “the female Elvis.” The two of them matched each other completely. They rode motorcycles together. They worked at the same pitch. Everyone who saw the footage could see it.
Meanwhile, Priscilla was 18 years old, living at Graceland in Memphis, surrounded by Elvis’s friends and staff, waiting for him to come home — and reading about the two of them in magazines.
Then it got worse. According to Priscilla’s account, Ann-Margret told the Los Angeles press that she and Elvis were engaged. The story ran across America.
Priscilla Finally Breaks Her Silence On Elvis And Ann-Margret—After 50 Years
What happened next is the most famous passage in Priscilla’s memoir. “I picked up a flower vase and hurled it across the room, shattering it against the wall.” She has also admitted to intercepting a personal telegram Ann-Margret had sent him, tearing it into pieces and flushing it away.
But it is Elvis’s reply that shaped the next decade of her life. He told her he wanted a woman who understood that “things like this might just happen” — and asked her, directly, whether she was going to be that woman or not.
Young Priscilla went back to Graceland the next day, agreeing on Elvis’s condition.
Priscilla Reveals The Real Reason She Divorced Elvis
He married her in 1967, and members of his inner circle have long argued he chose the woman he could shape over the one who was his equal — that a superstar wife would have been competition he did not want at home.
He never really let Ann-Margret go, though. He sent her guitar-shaped flowers on every Las Vegas opening night for the rest of his life.
Priscilla walked out in 1972, aged 27. Her explanation has never changed: “I did not divorce him because I didn’t love him. He was the love of my life, but I had to find out about the world.”