Riley Keough is addressing one of the most shocking revelations in her mom Lisa Marie Presley’s posthumous memoir From Here to the Great Unknown!
In the book, which came out on Tuesday, the late singer wrote she was so overcome with grief after her son Benjamin Keough sadly died by suicide in 2020 at 27 years old. While trying to cope with the sudden death, she could not decide whether to bury him in Graceland or Hawaii. So what does she do? Lisa kept his body on dry ice for two months at her home in California to give her some time to think about it and make a decision!
Related: Riley Keough Reveals The Most Heartbreaking Take On Mom Lisa Marie Presley’s Death
Riley, who finished the memoir after Lisa died last year, noted it was “really important” to her mother to “have ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she’d done with her dad,” Elvis Presley, back in 1977. As the musician pointed out, there is also “no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately.” So in her mind, why not? People process losing a loved one in different ways. And it allowed her more time with him. Lisa Marie and Riley even got tattoos to match his before the family ultimately had a funeral for Ben in Malibu and buried him next to Elvis at Graceland.
Since the confession dropped, people had a lot of opinions about Lisa having her son at the house for so long after his death — even thinking it was very strange. But according to Riley, her momma “wouldn’t care what people said.” She told People on Wednesday:
“If my mom were here, she’d be like, ‘Yeah, whatever. I don’t care. If people think that’s crazy, they can go f**k themselves.’”
Riley, though? She’s coming to her mom’s defense. The Zola star noted the coronavirus pandemic greatly impacted the funeral plans:
“The truth is that it was COVID and the plans to bury him were really unclear. We needed to get to Graceland, and it was really hard because it was COVID, and we didn’t know who was going to come, so there was a lot of planning that needed to happen.”
While figuring out the funeral plans, Riley said Lisa wanted Benjamin “to be in her control” — and not somewhere in which people could access his remains:
“She didn’t want his body to be somewhere where people could mess with it. We come from a family that’s pretty high profile, so I think she ultimately just felt like she wanted to be in control of the situation.”
Losing a family member is never easy — especially when that person is your own son. And it sounds like Lisa handled the situation the best she could, whether fans agree or not. Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Let us know (below).
[Image via MEGA/WENN, Judy Eddy/WENN]
