Priscilla Presley got a $1.4 million settlement from Lisa Marie’s estate

Last month, Riley Keough and Priscilla Presley’s lawyers came to a settlement agreement over Lisa Marie Presley’s estate. LM had changed her will a few times in the decade before she passed, and she had always made it abundantly clear that she wanted her eldest children, Riley and Ben Keough, to inherit and execute her estate. Ben passed away in 2020, so Riley was supposed to be the executor and trustee. Except Priscilla took her granddaughter to court and challenged Lisa Marie’s will, just weeks after LM’s passing. Last month, we only knew that there had been some kind of settlement. This week, the terms of the deal were revealed in court documents, and the NYT (per People) read through the entire filing and figured out how much Riley had to give her grandmother to get Priscilla to back off.

As Riley Keough becomes the sole trustee of her late mother Lisa Marie Presley’s estate, she’ll give her grandmother Priscilla Presley a $1 million lump-sum payment as part of a previous settlement reached by the pair, court documents obtained by PEOPLE seem to indicate.

Riley, 34, and Priscilla, 78, reached an agreement in May, with lawyers saying at the time that terms of the settlement would be kept confidential. And while nearly all mentions of the payment are redacted in court documents filed Monday in Los Angeles, one line deep into the 95-page filing indicates the hefty price tag.

The documents state that a $400,000 payment Riley is to give Priscilla for legal fees and costs will come “at the same time as the one million payment as stated in Paragraph 6 of this Agreement.”

The aforementioned Paragraph 6 mentions a sum to be paid to Priscilla by Riley, though the amount — which “shall be made within 10 days after Riley’s receipt of the life insurance proceeds” — is redacted. The $1 million amount was first reported by The New York Times. In return for Priscilla resigning, Riley is to issue the payment “after receiving the proceeds of her mother’s life-insurance policy,” per the docs.

Riley on Monday petitioned the court to approve the May settlement agreement, with her attorney Justin Gold writing that if it’s approved, the Daisy Jones & the Six actress won’t charge for her services as a trustee, something he says Priscilla would have done. Even so, the documents indicate that Priscilla was officially removed as Trustee of her late daughter’s estate on May 11, and that the change will remain in place whether Riley’s petition is approved or not, as Priscilla signed a settlement agreement.

[From People]

I’m shocked that Priscilla settled for so little – basically $1.4 million to lay no further claim to Lisa Marie’s estate. Now, that being said, I don’t think there was a huge amount of money left. Lisa Marie had already sold off a huge chunk of her father’s estate, and reportedly there was some mismanagement with the money. I think that’s why the settlement specifies Lisa Marie’s life insurance too – that might be the only money which isn’t tangled up in the larger bureaucracy of the trust. What sucks is that I’m pretty sure Lisa Marie only had a big life insurance policy because, oh right, she passed away with minor children (twins Harper and Finley Lockwood). The life insurance money was supposed to go to LM’s children, I guarantee. Instead, Priscilla demanded her “cut.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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32 Responses to “Priscilla Presley got a $1.4 million settlement from Lisa Marie’s estate”

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  1. FHMom says:

    It really is a small amount of money. It makes me wonder if Priscilla is broke. I can’t imagine wanting to alienate my grandchildren at any age, but especially at Priscilla’s age. It also officially tarnishes and ends her image as Elvis’s grieving widow even though she was never his widow.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      Priscilla has a lavish lifestyle so this money won’t last long – its interesting the snark about how P would have charged the estate money for being a trustee, talk about letting it be known that P is ALL about the money and fleecing where she can.

      I think the figure was low because as from what I can recall, LM wasn’t very good at managing her money – plus there was the expensive law suits with her ex that drained her financially.

      At some point Priscilla will find a way to ask for more. This ‘go away’ money won’t last long with the way she spends.

    • Bananapanda says:

      Didn’t it previously come out that Priscilla had secretly gotten $400k or something annually for decades? I think that’s why Lisa Marie was like “enough mom” and changed her will when she found out.

      • Dawn says:

        Yes. Priscilla was in league with Barry Siegel, who Lisa Marie accused of defrauding her. They were co-trustees. Barry authorized the trust (without Lisa Marie’s knowledge) to pay Priscilla a $900k annual “salary” from the trust. Celebitchy actually wrote about this back in February.

        “Here’s an added wrinkle – when Lisa Marie was seemingly uncovering all of Siegel’s financial improprieties, she also learned that Siegel had authorized a yearly “salary” to Priscilla from Elvis Presley Enterprises – an annual salary of $900,000. Insane. Priscilla organizing an annual $900K payout from the Elvis Presley estate/trust without Lisa Marie’s knowledge is bonkers, actually. No wonder Lisa Marie sued Siegel and was on the warpath with her mother for years. That’s shady as hell. In case you want a primer on all of the assets of Elvis’s estate and who sold what and when, the LA Times had an interesting story about that – Lisa Marie sold off a huge chunk of her father’s musical estate in the ‘90s, but she retained a 15% interest in Graceland and she owned all of her father’s clothes, guitars, etc. The fact that Priscilla was taking $900K a year is actually a huge chunk of what was legally Lisa Marie’s.“

        Priscilla made a very good living off her kid for many, many years. And when her daughter died she sued her grandchildren for a final payout. So trashy.

    • spankFD says:

      Burning question: WHY did Barry Seogel authorize the payments to PP and her son (who was NOT Elvis’ son)?
      Why breachfuduciary duty/risk personal damage?

  2. Duch says:

    All that noise and machinations for $1M ? I would have thought the estate was 100M or more.

    Priscilla is not a worthy grandmother. Hope that 1M was worth it to destroy your relationships with your family.

    • Mary says:

      It was for the 1/9 share of Lisa Marie’s estate to be given to Priscilla’s son, who, admittedly, did not get along with Lisa Marie (and no relation to Elvis). I guess Priscilla expects to live off of her son’s money now.

    • kelleybelle says:

      Her grandkids aren’t even allowed to call her grandma. They have to call her nona … Italian for Grandmother. Imagine.

      • Mel says:

        Of all the things one can say about her behavior here, wanting to be called Nona instead of Grandma is a non-starter. Seriously?

      • Arhus says:

        Oh of all this I think being wanted to be called ‘Nona’ is fine. My german grandma was called ‘Oma’

      • ama1977 says:

        Priscilla is trash for multiple reasons, but not for this. My kids call my mom “nonnie” instead of “grandma” and she’s great, lol. I have lots of friends with parents/grandparents with creative names; a friend who is Pakistani has the same grandma name as my mom, although it’s spelled “nani” in her case.

  3. HeyKay says:

    Terrible the way Priscilla added to Rileys stress and heartbreak by suing her.
    $1-$2M. As if she needed that money.
    Riley lost her brother and her Mom, then Grandma piles on for money. Shame on her.

    I wish Riley all the best.

    • Nlopez says:

      Hard agree HEYKAY!

    • Sugarhere says:

      $1.4 million is what it takes to alienate your children and and die without enjoying your great grandchildren. When greed verges on idiocy.

    • Coco says:

      Don’t forget she Riley also have just given birth to her first child.

    • JJ says:

      Agreed! Priscilla makes no sense to me at all. She made a career of being a grieving widow for 40-plus years when SHE ISN’T EVEN ELVIS’S WIDOW! She could have married another rich man or learned a skill, trade or something in the 40 years since Elvis died to support herself. I am going to watch Riley’s show on Amazon Prime to support her.

  4. ThatsNotOkay says:

    Priscilla doesn’t come out looking good in this, no matter how you slice it. And I’m not sure Riley is going to be buddy-buddy with her moving forward. This is “go away” money, and it’s sad that it might very well have helped completely rend an already jagged rift in the family.

  5. MY3CENTS says:

    So basically mega rich elder lady chooses to cut all ties with her grandchildren for 1 million dollars?

  6. TeamMeg says:

    One million? The weakest strong man at the circus.

    https://youtu.be/pQTgLXl1qXI

  7. Lucy2 says:

    That seems like such a relatively small amount for all of us for us, I can’t imagine looking at the situation and demanding that money, when it should have gone to the care of the minor children.

  8. ariel says:

    Don’t forget Lisa Marie and Priscilla were scientologists- Lisa Maria got out awhile back- did the scientology-friendly thing of not talking about it directly- but did talk in general terms about betrayal.

    Scientology is huge money suck- a lot of the Elvis estate money probably went to David Miscavige.

    And Priscilla seems like garbage. Apparently she arranged for her other (non elvis related) kid to get a piece of the trust. “Only” 1/9- but still.

    • equality says:

      Riley is also a scientologist. I’m sure COS is the biggest winner in all of this.

    • H says:

      I blame Priscilla for all the Scientology nonsense that she’s inflicted upon that family. Elvis thought it was a ridiculous “religion.” He’s rolling in his grave that his estate is funding David Miscavage.

      I hope Riley can heal and eventually leave the cult like her mother did.

  9. Digital Unicorn says:

    Pricsilla – Grandma Dearest this is a bad bad look. Suing your granddaughters for a cut of their recently passed mothers estate and then stiffing them with the legal fees. Money and fame were always her gods – Priscilla has an expensive lifestyle so am sure at some point she will come back for more.

    The trust for the twins is protected (from both grandma and the dodgy father) and Riley has a growing HW career so they will be fine. Plus they have the money from the life insurance which as i say above am sure Grandma Dearest will come after at some point.

    As i said on the other thread I hope at some point in the future Riley and the twins kick the leecher of an Uncle (LM’s half brother) off the estate trust.

  10. shanaynay says:

    Guess she needed thsy money to continue getting her horrible facelifts.

  11. what's inside says:

    Is Priscilla auditioning for Death Becomes Her II? If so Elvis is already there.

  12. Cynical or experienced says:

    Her son- who has no biological relationship to the Presley family- received 1/9th. I am sure she is managing that account. The small payout was to make it look like it wasn’t about the money.

  13. Elsa says:

    I’m curious. Who gets the money from Graceland and the Elvis music? Is it owned by the family?

    • BQM says:

      I think as regards the music the family never did get much. Thanks to the management of Elvis by Col Tom Parker. His contracts were awful.

  14. Passingbyama says:

    Priscilla already got $1 million for the Sofia Coppola movie coming out soon. Now she’s getting another $1 million from her own granddaughter? She’s so money hungry.

  15. Patricia says:

    Priscilla also got $900,000/yr as manager of Elvis Presley Estates.This is why she challenged the new Will because Lisa Marie cut her and the money out.Hopefully she’s made some wise investments all these years.But I doubt Riley would let her go broke.Also she is close to the twins dad,who also signed off on this settlement,so some type of agreement was struck between them.

  16. j.ferber says:

    1.4 million is an okay number. Riley is doing alright.