Riley Keough has shared what she thinks her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley really died of following her sudden death in January 2023.
The only daughter of Elvis Presley, Lisa was found unresponsive in her Calabasas home after suffering a cardiac arrest on January 12.
She died later that day aged 54 with an autopsy revealing the cause of death to be a "small bowel obstruction" from bariatric surgery she had several years ago.
However, the Daisy Jones & The Six star, 35, claimed that Lisa Marie really died from a "broken heart" after struggling to come to terms with her son, Benjamin's suicide at just 27 in 2020.
"My mom tried her best to find strength for me and my younger sisters after Ben died, but we knew how much pain she was in," Riley told People.
"My mom physically died from the after effects of her surgery, but we all knew she died of a broken heart," she added.
© Getty ImagesLisa Marie admitted in 2022 in an essay for People in honor of National Grief Awareness Day that she would never "get over" or "move on" from her son's death.
"Today is National Grief Awareness Day, and since I have been living in the horrific reality of its unrelenting grips since my son's death two years ago, I thought I would share a few things to be aware of in regard to grief for anyone who is interested," she began.
© MediaPunch/Shutterstock"One is that grief does not stop or go away in any sense, a year, or years after the loss. Grief is something you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life, in spite of what certain people or our culture wants us to believe. You do not 'get over it,' you do not 'move on,' period."
Lisa Marie added: "If the loss was premature, unnatural, or tragic, you will become a pariah in a sense. You can feel stigmatized and perhaps judged in some way as to why the tragic loss took place.
© Instagram"This becomes magnetized by a million if you are the parent of a child who passed. No matter how old they were. No matter the circumstances.
"I already battle with and beat myself up tirelessly and chronically, blaming myself every single day and that's hard enough to now live with.
© Instagram"But others will judge and blame you too, even secretly or behind your back which is even more cruel and painful on top of everything else."
Riley is currently promoting Lisa Marie's memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, which she helped finish in the wake of her death.
She admitted it her brother's death, "was incredibly difficult to write about, as was my mom's descent into addiction. And her own death, of course."
© Getty ImagesHowever, the actress hopes readers will take away more from the memoir than just a story about grief.
"I hope that in an extraordinary circumstance, people relate to a very human experience of love, heartbreak, loss, addiction and family," she 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."
She added: "Her hope with this book was just human connection. So that's mine."
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