Jackson-Presley

“His normal was a side that no one saw. His mom would say, "He told you that stuff?" and Janet would say, "I’ve never heard him talk about anything like that." I wished that he would show that side more. He didn't really talk to his brothers much at that point, and I think they were surprised that our relationship was legit. But they thought it was really cool.

My mom was very comfortable around Michael's family. She loved having dinner at Hayvenhurst with them.”

— Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough, from “From Here to the Great Unknown” (2024)

“I only witnessed rare glimpses of this marriage because they were so wrapped up in each other. My previous concerns about him being alone-surrounded by professional advisers or filling the void with random people evaporated. Now he had someone very real, firm and big-hearted, who wasn't afraid of the vultures around him.

I laughed at media suggestions that they were "faking it" because we all knew in the family the intensity of their relationship and how they always wanted to be together. Michael's joy couldn't have been faked. The intimacy you see in the video for “You Are Not Alone” was art imitating life; a sweet glimpse as to how easy they were with one another and how they liked to laugh. Reports that we "loathed" our brother's new wife could not have been further from the truth: she was only ever embraced and there was never one iota of doubt that she had Michael's best interests at heart. She grew particularly close to Janet and Rebbie. When my sisters spent time with Lisa Marie and heard her speak about Michael, they always came away saying the same thing: "That girl is crazy about him!"”

Allegedly, the Cascio family was also there.

“We were together a lot and there was no cameras. I think a lot of [people thinking the marriage was a sham] was because the promo for “HIStory” was coming so we had to go there and do this, all very manipulated, which I understand comes across as very manipulated period.”

Source: FBI files on Lisa Marie Presley (released after her death)

“In November 1994, I spent 2 weeks with Michael and Lisa Marie at the Trump Towers in New York. I was there to work on 2 projects for Michael while he was in the recording studio. Michael and Lisa Marie were great together and a lot of fun to be with.

In 1995, Michael asked me to do a painting of the 2 of them. Not one to do a normal portrait, he came up with a creative vision of how he wanted to portray their love for each other. Michael gave me a list of things he would like to see in the painting. I made a sketch and sent the original to him. He called me when he received it. He said he loved it and not to change a thing except to make the castle more "fanciful". At this time, I was working on 3 or 4 projects for Michael. I asked if I should set aside these projects in favor of this painting. Michael told me to finish what I was working on and to do the painting afterwards.

Sadly, by the time I got around to this painting, Michael and Lisa Marie had [divorced].”

— David Nordahl recalls the commission of “Camelot (Michael & Lisa Marie)” painting to Julien Auctions

Michael visited the private upstairs living quarters, where Lisa lived with her father in her childhood, and where Elvis died. This space (closed to the public out of respect for the Presley family) is said to be a sort of time capsule, where everything was left untouched since Elvis’ passing.

“The thing we want to do most is centered around children. I never met anybody who cared so much about children the way I do. I get real emotional about children. Lisa Marie is the exact same way.”

— Michael Jackson Ebony Magazine interview by Robert Johnson (October 1994)

“Lisa was great with going to the hospitals with me, and she was so sweet about that. […] They would tie the babies to the bed of chain children down. We'd go unchain...we'd go free all these babies. I hated that and she discovered a lot of that injustice with me. […] she had no problem going and doing some of the compassionate things of giving these children love and making them feel special.”

“My only actual contact with [Michael] was during an Elvis event in Memphis. I think it was a tribute concert. Michael showed up at Lisa's hotel unexpectedly, planning to sit with her at the concert, and his plans bothered me. His appearance was guaranteed to draw a great deal of attention, which would detract from the focus on honoring Elvis. It felt almost like another publicity stunt.

I went by the hotel beforehand to meet up with Lisa and asked her where Michael was. She said he was in the other room. He didn't come out to greet me. A few minutes after I arrived, the door down the hall opened, and Michael popped out. He grabbed his hat off the table where he'd left it, sort of smiled, and then popped back in the room and shut the door. He said nothing to me on the way to the show. [...] Early the next morning, he was gone. That was the sum total of my direct interactions with my son-in-law during the marriage.”

— Priscila Beaulieu Presley; from “Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis” (2025)

“Michael says he came to that moment when he had to say "This Girl Is Mine" and "The Way You Make Me Feel." (Michael chuckles at the play on the words of two of his best-selling songs.) “It kind of unfolded,” He said of the moment of truth. “We spent a lot of time on the ranch [his sprawling, multimillion-dollar Neverland] and just walked around and talked. It happened! It unfolded all natural. We could feel the feeling we had for each other without even talking about it. It was all in the vibrations, the feelings and the look in our eyes.”

What did you think about Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie, actually, turning up at the beginning?

M: Hmm, I thought it was interesting the way Lisa Marie, curiously, turned her mouth away from his. I think she didn’t want to smear her lipstick, though. I don’t think it was anything personal.

Or maybe his lipstick.

M: Exactly!

L: “That was not my idea, by the way,” she says. “I was terrified. It was his manager's idea. I thought it was stupid. All of a sudden I became part of a PR machine.”

It seemed like a blatant gimmick to prove - to start with - that he was straight.

L: Yeah, but again, I wasn't looking at it like that. See, if I had been, that wouldn't have ever happened.

— Lisa Marie Presley: Rolling Stone Interview - April 20, 2003 (via rollingstone)

“During the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards, she had no idea he was going to kiss her until right before it happened. Eventually, the thought crept into her mind, Did he just do that for press? Was he just another version of her first love who had sold photos from the park? It sparked a fear that maybe he was only around because she was Elvis's daughter, a novelty.”

— Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough, from “From Here to the Great Unknown” (2024)

“He knew that I didn't love [media exposure] and he was okay. He got it. He needed to do his thing, I would be there uncomfortably, like the MTV thing, his hand was blue afterwards after we got off that stage. He showed me and it was completely blue, I had squeezed it so hard! [laugh]. I did not want to do that. It's not in my nature to do that sort of thing. But I understood it as his way of, he needed to do things like that.”

O: So you fell in love with [Michael Jackson] because of...?

LMP: For him. Because he was an incredible, an incredibly dynamic person. If you were in his vicinity and he wanted to give - and he showed you who he was, and he was willing to do that in any way, meant that... I have never felt so high in my life. I have never felt so high in my life as that. I am not lying when I say that. He had something so intoxicating about him and when he was on, when he was ready to share with you or give it to you, and be himself and allow you to come in. I don't know if I've ever been that intoxicated by anything. […] He was like a drug for me. I felt like I just always wanted to be around him, always wanted to be part of - I felt so high. I've never felt like that around another human being, except for one, which was my father.

— Lisa Marie Presley Oprah Interview (2010)

I've never been that high / As when we fell in love / That was not a dream