From her early days of dating Elvis to their private life at home and beyond.
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Priscilla Presley will forever be known for being Elvis's other half, but she's also a Hollywood icon in her own right. It wasn't easy living in the shadow of music's biggest star, and finding herself took some time—even after their divorce. To really get a sense of her experience—from her struggles to her achievements—you must understand her backstory. From her childhood to marriage to The King to life after leaving Graceland, this is Priscilla's life in photos, so far.
Priscilla Ann Wagner was born in Brooklyn on May 24, 1945. When she was six months old, her biological father, US Navy pilot James Wagner, died in a plane crash. After her mother remarried US Air Force officer Paul Beaulieu, she spent her childhood moving around to different bases. In 1956, she found herself in Germany, where she would meet Elvis just a few years later.
In 1959, Priscilla met Elvis at a party when she was just 14 years old. The singer was stationed in Germany during his time in the military, and threw a gathering at the house he was renting.
Priscilla's mother and stepfather, Ann Wagner and Paul Beaulieu, didn't like the idea of their daughter seeing someone 10 years her senior. "Whenever they tried to stop us from seeing each other, I pleaded and cried and made them and myself miserable," she wrote in her book, Elvis and Me. "In retrospect, I don't think anything could have stopped me from seeing Elvis."
A policeman escorts a then-16-year-old Priscilla out of Frankfurt Airport. She was saying goodbye to Elvis, as he traveled back home to Graceland.
Even while apart, the pair stayed in touch over the phone. When she turned 17, her parents allowed her to move to America on one condition: Elvis agreed to marry her.
Learning to trust Elvis wasn't easy for Priscilla, even after she joined him in the United States in 1962. "Women gravitated to him, so I would be nervous when he had to go places alone. I would even go with him to get his teeth cleaned! I always had an eye on him because everyone in the world was after him," she told PEOPLE.
In December 1966, Elvis popped the question. He proposed with a three-and-a-half-carat diamond ring from jeweler Harry Levitch. "He surprised me with it. I had no idea whatsoever what it would look like, but he had great taste. And yeah, we went downstairs, and showed his grandmother and his father. And he was showing everybody my hand with the ring on it. So, it was a very happy occasion," she once recalled to World Cafe.
On May 1, 1967, the couple tied the knot in an intimate Las Vegas ceremony. Priscilla's younger sister, Michelle Beaulieu, stood beside her as her maid of honor.
The newlyweds cut into their $22,000 cake. The six-tiered dessert was yellow sponge cake filled with apricot marmalade and liqueur-flavored cream.
Though they seemed happy, there were some problems that existed from the start. "The beginning [of the marriage] was very difficult, but I knew what I was in for because I saw it at a very young age," she said while visiting an exhibit about the late musician in 2016.
After their nuptials, Priscilla found it difficult being in the public eye. But her husband was used to it—and had plenty of advice to share. "It was hard to get accepted. But he always told me, 'Don't pay attention… don't even listen and don't look at the tabloids,'" she revealed at the same exhibit in 2016.
Fun fact: Frank Sinatra loaned his private plane to Priscilla and Elvis during their wedding weekend. After their reception, the newlyweds honeymooned in Palm Springs at their home, nicknamed "Honeymoon Hideaway."
According to the biography Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley, there were rumors Elvis didn't want to marry Priscilla, but her father threatened to have him arrested for taking "a minor across state lines for sexual purposes" if he didn't.
On February 1, 1968—exactly nine months after their wedding—the couple welcomed daughter Lisa Marie Presley.
After Lisa Marie was born, their relationship took a turn for the worse. "[Elvis] had mentioned to me before we were married that he had never been able to make love to a woman who had a child," Priscilla revealed in her 1985 autobiography, Elvis and Me.
The pair become more distant with time. "I [was] beginning to doubt my own sexuality as a woman. My physical and emotional needs were unfulfilled," she wrote in Elvis and Me.
In an effort to save their relationship, Priscilla renewed her vows with Elvis just a few years after their marriage.
The couple chats with Tom Jones in Las Vegas. Elvis and Tom became great friends, even vacationing together in Hawaii—and Priscilla has stayed close with singer over the years. "She's a very dear friend of mine, Priscilla. I mean, I met her in the '60s, and she's been a friend of mine ever since," Tom told PEOPLE in 2021.
With growing troubles came infidelity—on both sides. Elvis had reportedly cheated long before they were married, while Priscilla admitted to having an affair with her karate instructor.
In 1973, the couple split for good. "I did not divorce him because I didn't love him. He was the love of my life, but I had to find out about the world," Priscilla shared on ITV's Loose Women.
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