He is always on her mind.<\/p>\n
Priscilla Presley couldn\u2019t mourn her late ex-husband, Elvis Presley, in peace when the rock and roll icon was laid to rest at his Graceland mansion 48 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no privacy for those of us closest to Elvis, including the family,\u201d Priscilla, 80, recalled in her second memoir, \u201cSoftly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis,\u201d<\/a> which was released Tuesday.<\/p>\n The cover of Priscilla Presley\u2019s new memoir, \u201cSoftly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis.\u201d Grand Central Publishing<\/p>\n Priscilla Presley attends a conversation about \u201cSoftly, As I Leave You\u201d in New York City on Sept. 24, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n Elvis Presley with his wife, Priscilla Presley, and their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, at their California home in Nov. 1970. Frank Carroll<\/p>\n \u201cPeople and cameras surrounded the property,\u201d she continued. \u201cMourners waited to be admitted to the house for a public viewing of Elvis\u2019s open casket.\u201d<\/p>\n Elvis, who died of cardiac arrest<\/a> on Aug. 16, 1977, at the age of 42, was given a public funeral at his Memphis, Tennessee, home<\/a> two days after his shocking passing.<\/p>\n The ceremony was nationally televised, and thousands of the \u201cBlue Suede Shoes\u201d crooner\u2019s grieving fans made the pilgrimage to Graceland to pay their respects.<\/p>\n Priscilla Presley at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California, on Feb. 18, 2020. Getty Images<\/p>\n Priscilla Presley during the Vienna Opera Ball in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 8, 2024. Getty Images<\/p>\n Priscilla Presley during \u201cAn Evening with Priscilla Presley\u201d in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Nov. 15, 2024. Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThe crowds were so large by the second day that President Jimmy Carter called up the Air National Guard to help local police,\u201d Priscilla wrote. \u201cIt was hot and muggy, and some in the crowd fainted from the heat and from emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey felt compelled to pay their respects as they would to a family member,\u201d she added. \u201cIt was overwhelming. There wasn\u2019t room yet for our own grief.\u201d<\/p>\n A private funeral was later held for the King of Rock and Roll in the living room and music room of his Graceland home. <\/p>\n Elvis and Priscilla Presley on their wedding day in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1, 1967. Getty Images<\/p>\n Elvis and Priscilla Presley shortly after welcoming their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, in Memphis, Tennessee, in Feb. 1968. Michael Ochs Archives<\/p>\n Priscilla and Elvis Presley during an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1969. Getty Images<\/p>\n Priscilla, who admitted that she was \u201cnumb with grief\u201d at the time, remembered sitting next to Elvis\u2019 dad, Vernon Presley, and her then-9-year-old daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, whom she shared with the \u201cSuspicious Minds\u201d singer.<\/p>\n Lisa Marie\u00a0tragically passed away<\/a>\u00a0in 2023 from a small bowel obstruction. She was 54.<\/p>\n \u201cLisa and I waited until we could be alone with Elvis to say goodbye\u2026 Then we each kissed him one last time,\u201d Priscilla wrote. \u201cI\u2019m not sure it hit me until then that he was really gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 29, 2011. WireImage<\/p>\n Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough at the Los Angeles premiere of \u201cMad Max: Fury Road\u201d on May 7, 2015. Getty Images<\/p>\n Priscilla and the \u201cAll Shook Up\u201d rocker married in Las Vegas<\/a> in 1967. However, the \u201cNaked Gun\u201d star later filed for divorce from Elvis in 1972, and their split was finalized one year later.<\/p>\n Still, Priscilla admitted that a \u201clarge part of me died\u201d with the \u201cAlways on My Mind\u201d singer upon his death nearly 50 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t accept that he had passed. I\u2019d felt Elvis would always be there,\u201d she wrote in her new memoir. \u201cHe was such a force of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Priscilla and Elvis Presley at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, in Aug. 1969. Getty Images<\/p>\n Priscilla Presley at the Venice Film Festival premiere of \u201cPriscilla\u201d on Sept. 4, 2023. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n But this wouldn\u2019t be the first time the \u201cLove is Forever\u201d actress has opened up about the day she had to say goodbye to the love of her life.<\/p>\n Priscilla previously discussed the heartbreaking moment during an interview with the \u201cToday\u201d <\/a>show back in 2018.<\/p>\n She said that she was \u201cshocked\u201d at the time because Elvis\u2019 sudden death was \u201cjust too hard to believe.\u201d<\/p>\n Priscilla Presley at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, California, on Sept. 19, 2023. WireImage<\/p>\n Priscilla Presley stepping out in New York City on Sept. 23, 2025. GC Images<\/p>\n \u201cGoing out the gates in the limo and seeing the streets lined up on both sides all the way to the cemetery,\u201d Priscilla shared. \u201cYou\u2019d see glimpses, you\u2019d see people crying, hysterical, fainting, and that\u2019s how impactful it was and still to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople come around the same time,\u201d she added, \u201cand they\u2019re all there.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere in her new memoir, Priscilla detailed how the \u201cBurning Love\u201d singer once called her in the middle of the night<\/a>\u00a0as she was lying in bed alongside Rob Kardashian, whom she dated for a short time from 1975 to 1976.<\/p>\n