Priscilla Presley has refuted claims that her relationship with Elvis constituted “pedophilia” despite being just 14 years old when they first met, as she reveals intimate details about their marriage in her latest memoir.
In her new book, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, Priscilla explores her romance with The King of Rock and Roll, along with the challenges she endured regarding her late daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.
Beyond discussing the Presley family, Priscilla shared exclusive insights about her year-long affair with Robert Kardashian and how Elvis would phone her while she was in bed with him. She noted that Elvis remained unaware Robert was present during those calls, just as Robert had no knowledge of Elvis’s late-night conversations with her. The story emerges as Priscilla Presley’s ‘wake-up call’ when she realized she was pregnant with Lisa Marie is published.
Elvis and Priscilla first encountered each other at ages 24 and 14, respectively, in Germany. He was throwing a party at his Bad Nauheim residence during his US Army service when Priscilla arrived with a mutual friend.
They quickly began dating, with Priscilla relocating to Memphis four years afterward to live with him. The couple eventually wed when Priscilla reached 21, reports the Mirror US.
Nevertheless, their significant age difference has led some to previously characterize the relationship as “pedophilia.”
Addressing this controversy in her memoir, Priscilla stated, “Much has been made of the ten-year age gap between us, but it wasn’t unusual in the South. It certainly wasn’t considered pedophilia.”
The 80 year old drew parallels to other relationships of that era, where the women were minors. “After all, thirty-three-year-old Rhett Butler had first attracted Scarlett O’Hara when she was sixteen. Of course, they were fictional characters, but they were symbolic of a cultural reality,” Priscilla explained.
“Jerry Lee Lewis had famously married his wife when she was thirteen. So had Edgar Allan Poe, another Southern icon.”
Nevertheless, she seemed satisfied that she delayed marriage until age 21, noting, “I, fortunately, wasn’t a child bride.”
She also provided extensive details about her relationship timeline with Elvis, telling readers, “Though Elvis and I had started a relationship when I was fourteen, it didn’t become a romantic relationship until I was seventeen. We waited to have sex until he married me at twenty-one. The fact remains, however, that there were ten years between us.”
Priscilla explored the cultural factors behind such marriages during that period, explaining why people, particularly in the South, would enter age-gap relationships.
“There was some logic to an age gap between spouses. Older men could be good husband prospects because they were more mature and well established socially and economically,” the Dallas actress said. “From the Southern men’s point of view, choosing a younger woman made it easier to function as the head of the household, guiding their young wife’s behavior and opinions.”
Despite this, Priscilla acknowledged that due to traditional expectations of a woman’s role in marriage, she had to put significant effort into maintaining her appearance, including wrapping her hair in toilet paper.
Looking back, she said, “This extra code of etiquette was layered onto Elvis’s expectations of me as a wife. Elvis was a Southern man who expected his woman to be pretty, submissive, and charming. Twenty-four hours a day. I would even wrap my hair in toilet paper after Elvis fell asleep to keep my hairdo intact. Then I’d get up early to fix my hair and eye makeup before he woke up.”
However, as she grew older, she noticed a “power imbalance,” which impacted her relationship with the star.
“The problem, of course, was that as I grew into adulthood, the power imbalance created by the age gap with Elvis remained. It was difficult for us to have a marriage of equals when Elvis was used to being in charge.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
