When Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023, the Presley family was suddenly dealing with grief and a complicated legal dispute at the same time.
Within weeks, Priscilla Presley challenged a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s trust that had removed Priscilla and former business manager Barry Siegel as trustees and replaced them with Lisa Marie’s children Riley and Benjamin Keough. After Benjamin’s death in 2020, Riley was the surviving named trustee.
Headlines quickly portrayed the situation as a bitter fight between grandmother and granddaughter.
But Riley later said the truth was more complicated.
“When my mom passed, there was a lot of chaos in every aspect of our lives,” Riley told Vanity Fair. She explained that the family was grieving while simultaneously trying to understand the complicated business surrounding Lisa Marie’s estate.
Eventually, the two sides reached a settlement.
Riley became sole trustee of Lisa Marie Presley’s trust and gained control of Graceland, while Priscilla received financial payments and reimbursement of legal costs. Court documents also established an advisory role for Priscilla.
Riley Keough Breaks Her Silence on Priscilla Presley
When Riley finally addressed the supposed family feud publicly, she did not describe Priscilla as an enemy.
Instead, she said something much calmer:
“Clarity has been had.”
Riley acknowledged there had been a period of “upheaval,” but insisted that her relationship with her grandmother had not been destroyed.
“Things with Grandma will be happy,” she said, adding that Priscilla remained deeply connected to Elvis, Graceland and the Presley legacy.
Riley also pushed back against reports suggesting Priscilla would be excluded from Graceland after her death.
She said her grandmother could “of course” be buried there, explaining that she did not understand why the issue had created so much public drama.
The final settlement left Riley in control of the trust and Graceland while avoiding a prolonged public courtroom fight.
More importantly, Riley made clear that she did not view the dispute as proof that her relationship with Priscilla had permanently collapsed.
To the public, it looked like a Presley family war.
To Riley, it was a grieving family trying to untangle a complicated estate while dealing with the sudden death of Lisa Marie.
There was a legal fight, there was upheaval and money changed hands. But according to Riley Keough, the story did not end with grandmother and granddaughter becoming enemies.