Mother's Day isn't always easy or necessarily celebratory for many, and for Riley Keough, this year's holiday is proving to be rather bittersweet.
While Sunday, May 14, marked the first year the actress gets to celebrate Mother's Day as one herself, having secretly welcomed a daughter in 2022, it also marks her first without her own mother, Lisa Marie Presley, who died earlier this year.
Lisa Marie passed away unexpectedly on January 12th, aged 54, after being rushed to the hospital from her Los Angeles home, having suffered from cardiac arrest. It was ten days later, on January 22, that her family gathered at Elvis Presley's legendary Graceland estate for the funeral.
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At the funeral, Riley was of course in attendance but didn't speak, and instead had her husband, Ben Smith Petersen, give a eulogy on stage on her behalf.
While giving his speech, a letter from his wife to her late mother, he revealed on behalf of the Daisy Jones & the Six actress that they had welcomed their first child together, a daughter.
The speech, titled A Letter to my Mama, first read: "Thank you for being my mother in this life. I am eternally grateful to have spent 33 years with you. I'm certain I chose the best mother for me in this world and I knew that as far back as I can remember you."
© GettyIt continued: "I remember everything. I remember you giving me baths as a baby, I remember you driving me in my car seat listening to Aretha Franklin. I remember the way you'd cuddle me when I'd come into your bed at night and the way you smelled.
MORE: Riley Keough looks just like late mom Lisa Marie Presley in sheer retro look for outing
"I remember you singing me and my brother [Benjamin Keough] lullabies at night and how you'd lay with us until you fell asleep. I remember how it felt to be loved by the most loving mother I've ever known." Riley's brother Benjamin died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 27 in July of 2020.
© GettyBen revealed the arrival of the couples' daughter – whose name or exact birth date has yet to be revealed – when he said: "Thank you for showing me that love is the only thing that matters in this life. I hope I can love my daughter the way you loved me, the way you loved my brother and my sisters."
Though Riley has been active on social media and has continued her public life since her mother's passing, attending various red carpet outings and promotional events for Daisy Jones and the Six, she has rarely broached the topic of her daughter publicly since then.
As for Lisa Marie, Riley last honored her mom on Instagram with a post shortly after the funeral, when she shared the last photo the two took together. It sees them sitting side by side as they enjoy dinner at a restaurant, and she wrote in her caption: "I feel blessed to have a photo of the last time I saw my beautiful mama. Grateful @georgieflores took this."
Before then, she only acknowledged her mother's passing with a post some days after her death, also on Instagram, a throwback photo of her as a child holding flowers, her mom looking fondly at her, and she simply captioned it with a red heart emoji.
Scroll below for more photos of Riley with her family.
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