Priscilla Presley discussed her controversial romance with Elvis depicted in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Although many still cringe at the fact the two met when Elvis was 24 and she was a mere 14, Priscilla says the star respected her young age.
The former couple, who spent more than a decade together, met at a party near a military base. Priscilla spoke about their encounter during a press conference for the film, adding that the rock star didn’t immediately pursue a physical relationship with her.
“People think, Oh, it was sex…. Not at all,” Presley said. “I never had sex with him. He was very kind, very soft, very loving, but he also respected the fact I was only 14 years old. We were more in mind, in thought, and that was our relationship.”
Presley also spoke about their time together in her memoir Elvis and Me, which the film is based on, Vanity Fair reported.
“It was very difficult for my parents to understand that Elvis would be so interested in me and why. And I really do think because I was more of a listener,” Presley said at the press conference. “Elvis would pour his heart out to me in every way in Germany: his fears, his hopes, the loss of his mother—which he never ever got over. And I was the person who really, really sat there to listen and to comfort him. That was really our connection.”
“Even though I was 14, I was actually a little bit older in life—not in numbers. That was the attraction.”
The two went on to get married in Las Vegas when she turned 21.
“I don’t know why he put so much trust in me, but he did. And I never ever, ever, told anyone that I was seeing him, and that was another issue that he loved, is the fact that I never gave him up in any way,” Presley added. “I never told anyone at school that I was seeing him. So we built a relationship, and that relationship went on until, yes, I left.”
The two divorced five years later. They shared one daughter, Lisa Marie. Presley blamed Elvis’ lifestyle as the reason for their split. “He was the love of my life. It was the lifestyle that was so difficult for me, and I think any woman can relate to that.”
The new film tells her side of the story, which she says is “very difficult to sit and watch….”
