People think a divorce is the end of a love story. For Elvis and Priscilla, it turned out to be more of a new chapter.
Their marriage ended in the fall of 1973. But the two of them never drifted into the kind of split where both sides stop speaking. They stayed close. They talked on the phone all the time, they shared raising their daughter Lisa Marie and they kept a warm place in each other’s lives.
Priscilla wrote about those years in her memoir “Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis.” In it she remembers one Christmas she spent with Elvis sometime after the divorce. It’s a small moment, the kind most people would forget. She never did.
She talks about the book and that time in her life in this television interview.
Priscilla talks about her life after Elvis
Here’s the scene she describes. The visit was winding down and Elvis was heading out the door. Before he left, he leaned in and kissed her gently on the forehead. Then he gave her a long, loving look, the kind that says more than words usually can.
And he did say something. Just three words.
Those three words have stayed with Priscilla ever since. When she was asked about that time on television, she said, “Those were hopes and dreams, and it would have been great if it happened.” She’s also said the two of them “always remained friendly and would still get together.”
So what were the three words Elvis said at the door that Christmas? He kissed her forehead, looked at her and said, “Someday. Maybe someday.” Just three words, with a world of feeling behind them.
It wasn’t a promise and it wasn’t a goodbye. It was Elvis holding the door open on a hope he never fully let go of. The marriage had ended on paper, but the bond between them clearly hadn’t.
For fans, that little moment says so much about who these two were to each other. Priscilla has spent years telling the world that the love was real and that it lasted, long after the papers were signed.
That’s part of why so many people still find comfort in her memories. They show an Elvis the headlines rarely did, a gentle man saying a quiet farewell with hope in his voice.
Watch the interview above to hear Priscilla talk about her life after Elvis, and the feelings she carried long after that Christmas.