Priscilla Presley is challenging the “authenticity and validity” of her late daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s will.
The former wife of Elvis Presley filed a petition with the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, per The Hollywood Reporter, challenging a 2016 amendment to the document that replaced Priscilla and a former business manager, Barry Siegel, as cotrustees, with Lisa Marie’s eldest daughter, Riley Keough, and her late son, Benjamin Keough.
In 1993, Lisa Marie formed a trust in an agreement with her mother to help manage the Presley estate. After Lisa Marie sold 85% of the company’s assets to entertainment company CKX Inc. in 2004, for around $100 million, the trust kept a 15% stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises, which owns the singer’s intellectual property.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, in this new petition, Priscilla claims that she was not made aware of the 2016 change to her daughter’s will during her lifetime, as required by the terms of the trust. The filing reportedly states, “The foregoing method shall be the exclusive method by which this trust may be revoked or amended, or any amendment cancelled,” citing several incidents in which changes to trusts were found invalid in the past due to trustees not being properly notified. She also reportedly alleges that her name is misspelled on the amendment and her daughter’s signature is “inconsistent with her usual and customary signature.” That edition of the will was also apparently never witnessed or notarized, and the provisions don’t appear on the signature page, as is customary. According to the The Hollywood Reporter, Priscilla Presley says in the petition she has no plans to resign and will continue in her capacity as cotrustee, while Keough will soon become a cotrustee anyway, as Siegel “has already or will soon resign.” The filing reportedly concludes, “Petitioner respectfully requests an order from this court determining that the Purported 2016 Amendment is invalid.”
Lisa Marie died earlier this month at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center after experiencing cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, California, just two days after attending the Golden Globes. She was 54 years old. Priscilla announced the sad news in a statement later that day, writing, “It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us. She was the most passionate strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers. At this time there will be no further comment.”
This article first appeared on Vanity Fair.
