Priscilla Presley questions the legality of Lisa Marie’s will
Elvis Presley’s ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, has filed a judicial challenge to the legitimacy of their late daughter’s will.
Lisa Marie Presley, the couple’s only child, died of a heart arrest two weeks ago at 54.
The petition challenges a 2016 change to Lisa Marie’s will that removed Priscilla as estate trustee.
Ms Presley’s lawyers claim that the document misspelt her mother’s name and had a strange signature.
Lawyers for the 77-year-old said in a Los Angeles Superior Court filing that she first learned of the “alleged 2016 amendment” after Lisa Marie died.
By removing her as trustee, she would no longer be in charge of her daughter’s assets.
It is unclear how much that estate is worth, but multiple lawsuits file in recent years suggest Lisa Marie’s finances were in disarray, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
The now-contested addendum to her will eliminate her mother and former business manager, Barry Siegel, as co-trustees and replace them with Riley, 33, and Benjamin Keough.
Benjamin Keough passed at the age of 27 in 2020. Riley Keough is an actress who has appeared in films such as The Devil All the Time and The Terminal List on Amazon.
Ms Presley claims in her court challenge that the modification was never provide to her during her daughter’s lifetime, as required under the will.
The modification to Lisa Marie’s will also “misspells her mother’s name” and carries a signature by Lisa Marie that “appears inconsistent with her usual and customary signature,” according to a court filing by the BBC.
Her attorneys also claim that the amendment was neither witness nor notarize.
“Based on the preceding, the Purported 2016 Amendment should be considered invalid, and the Trust, as revise and restate in 2010, is the controlling and authoritative document, and its terms are administer,” according to the petition.
The legal move comes less than a week after Lisa Marie Presley’s surviving family attended a public memorial service at the family’s Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.
Priscilla read a poem at the service that she said was written by one of Lisa Marie’s three daughters. Riley, along with the other two, attended the service.
The Los Angeles County coroner has yet to release Lisa Marie’s cause of death.