Just weeks after the passing of her only daughter, it would be understandable if Priscilla Presley needed to be alone with her thoughts.
But Elvis Presley ’s famous ex-wife is doing something the King of Rock ‘n’ roll couldn’t in his record-breaking music career – a UK tour.
Priscilla, 77, looked chic in a figure hugging sequined black dress as she appeared onstage at Glasgow’s City Hall at the weekend.
She spilled secrets on her first moments with Elvis and intimate nights together long after their divorce.
Born Priscilla Ann Wagner in Brooklyn, Priscilla first met Elvis in 1959, aged 14.
The singer and her stepdad, US Air Force officer Paul Beaulieu, were stationed in Germany.
Priscilla says: “The house that we lived in turned out to be a whorehouse. We lived on the first floor, but there were a lot of women that went back and forth upstairs with nighties on. My father rented the place and couldn’t get out of it. He just told me not to look.”
Priscilla and Elvis quickly formed an emotional attachment, but Priscilla insists there was nothing sexual – until much later.
Instead, he poured his heart out over his mum, Gladys, who had died the year before from a heart attack.
Priscilla says: “I was 14. He was 24 years old and he was always a gentleman with me.
“My relationship with Elvis was definitely not sexual so he would tell me his fears, that he didn’t think he had a career.
“He poured his heart out on the loss of his mother… stories about his mother walking him to school, even high school.
“He’d hide behind trees because he would get embarrassed that the kids who were older would see him with his mother.
“I grew to love him so much as a young girl and I never ever betrayed him.
“I never told anyone that I was seeing him.
“The photographers found out where I lived and found out what school I went to. They followed me home.”
After his spell in the army, Elvis returned to Memphis.
Priscilla says: “He didn’t call me for 21 days. I thought that I would never hear from him. I was totally heartbroken. I’d go to school and I’d write his name.
“I’d score it out, throw away the paper and say I hate him, wondering if I would see him again.
“Then I got calls in the middle of the night and I’d have to wait half-an-hour to be connected.”
Invited to Memphis, she finished school there and their romance blossomed.
The pair wed in Vegas in 1967, but divorced six years later.
Long after the split, The King – who dated Linda Thompson from 1972 to 1976 – would visit Priscilla in secret.
She says: “Because we parted did not mean that we didn’t care for each other.
“After we divorced, he would come to the house in the middle of the night even when he was dating other women and I still went to Graceland.
“He would bring books and read them to me at two in the morning while Lisa was sleeping.
“I was dating someone and Elvis would come. We would talk at two until three, four or five am.
“I started to get nervous because he was dating Linda at the time.
“I look back now and I think that was a special time that we had together that no one really knew about, that I never really talked about.
“He would spend time reading and talking about things that he didn’t really want to talk about with the guys.
“We had more fun and did so much with our lives in closeness and in laughter than any of the other women.
“I’m so fortunate having that life with him and time with him.
“I cherish every moment.
“I still love Elvis very much."
Elvis died on August 16, 1977, from heart failure, exacerbated by prolonged overuse of prescription drugs. He was 42.
Joe Esposito, part of Elvis’s inner circle known as the Memphis Mafia, was the one to break the news.
Priscilla says: “I never really got over hearing the words when Joe called me and told me that Elvis was dead and I needed to come to Memphis right away.
“My daughter Lisa was out on the golf cart driving around.
“I lost someone very special never to be replaced ever.
“I was in a state of shock. I hid in my room. I went in and slammed my door. I didn’t want any phone calls.
“I couldn’t believe that he died.”
Priscilla is now coming to terms with the death of their only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.
Aged just 54, she suffered a cardiac arrest on January 12.
It has led to a rift with granddaughter Riley Keough – who currently stars in the musical drama mini-series Daisy Jones & The Six – over the will.
