Riley Keough Says Lisa Marie 'Wouldn't Care' About Backlash for Son on Ice

Riley Keough, Lisa Marie Presley. Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

has her mom’s back even in death, revealing that “wouldn’t care” about backlash over her choice to keep late son on dry ice after his death.

“If my mom were here, she’d be like, ‘Yeah, whatever. I don’t care. If people think that’s crazy, they can go f— themselves,” Riley, 35, told People on Wednesday, October 9, referring to her mom’s choice to keep Benjamin’s body on dry ice at her house before burying him in Tennessee in 2020.

Riley explained, “The truth is that it was COVID and the plans to bury him were really unclear.” She noted that the family “needed to get to Graceland, and it was really hard because it was COVID, and we didn’t know who was going to come, so there was a lot of planning that needed to happen.”

Riley recalled her mom wanting Benjamin, who died by suicide in 2020 at the age of 27, to be “in her control” which is why she kept him close. (Presley shared Riley and Benjamin with ex-husband .)

Related: Riley Keough Remembers ‘Angel‘ Brother Ben in Lisa Marie Presley‘s MemoirBenjamin Keough, the son of Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough, died by suicide at age 27 in July 2020. Their family has been remembering him ever since. “[Lisa Marie] is entirely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated but trying to stay strong for her 11-year-old twins and her oldest daughter Riley,” her rep, Roger Widynowski, […]

“She didn’t want his body to be somewhere where people could mess with it,” Riley added. “We come from a family that’s pretty high profile, so I think she ultimately just felt like she wanted to be in control of the situation.”

John Sciulli/WireImage

Riley’s remarks come one day after she released Presley’s memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, posthumously. In the book, which Riley finished after her mom’s death in January 2023, Presley detailed Benjamin’s burial process.

“My house has a separate casitas bedroom, and I kept Ben Ben in there for two months. There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately,” Presley wrote. “I found a very empathetic funeral homeowner … She said, ‘We’ll bring Ben Ben to you.’”

Related: Lisa Marie Presley Through the YearsLisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, made a name for herself in the public eye. She was only 9 years old when her father died in 1977. As she continued to grow up, Lisa Marie was quick to follow in her dad’s footsteps. She released three albums over the […]

Riley recalled her mom wanting to have “have ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she’d done with her dad.” Lisa Marie’s father, , died in 1997 when she was 9, but wasn’t buried right away.

“Having my dad in the house after he died was incredibly helpful because I could go and spend time with him and talk to him,” Lisa Marie wrote.

During the two months that Benjamin’s body was on ice, Lisa Marie said she had a tattoo artist come to the house so she could get matching ink. When asked for a picture of Benjamin, she showed the artist her son’s body.

CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images

“Lisa Marie Presley had just asked this poor man to look at the body of her dead son, which happened to be right next to us in the casitas,” Riley recalled in the book. “I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five.”

Riley noted that once Lisa Marie got her matching ink, she “got the vibe” that Benjamin should be laid to rest. “Even my mom said that she could feel him talking to her, saying ‘This is insane, Mom, what are you doing? What the f—!’” Riley wrote.

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

Subscribe to newsletters Please enter a valid email. Subscribe

By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly

Deal of the DayScore The ‘No Needle Botox’ Serum Kate Middleton Uses on a Rare 30% off Sale!View Deal

Check our latest news in Google News

Follow Us

Check our latest news in Apple News

Follow UsjQuery( document ).ready( function( $ ) { let randomNumber = Math.floor( Math.random() * 100 ), is_spanish = false, is_featured_post = false; if ( randomNumber < 96 && $( '#news-block .shop-with-us__container' ).length ) { $( '#news-block .shop-with-us__container' ).show(); $( '#news-block .news-widget, #news-block .newsletter-form' ).remove(); } else { if( $( '#news-block .shop-with-us__container' ).length ) { $( '#news-block .shop-with-us__container' ).remove(); } if ( is_spanish ) { // 99% should be newsletter signup if ( randomNumber < 99 ) { $( '#news-block .news-widget' ).remove(); } else { $( '#news-block .newsletter-form' ).remove(); $( '#news-block .news-widget' ).show(); } } else if ( is_featured_post ) { // no newsletter block $( '#news-block .newsletter-form' ).remove(); $( '#news-block .news-widget' ).show(); } else { // 50/50 if( 0 === parseInt( $.now() ) % 2 ) { $( '#news-block .news-widget' ).remove(); } else { $( '#news-block .newsletter-form' ).remove(); $( '#news-block .news-widget' ).show(); } } if ( navigator.userAgent.match( /(iPod|iPhone|iPad)/ ) ) { $( '#news-block .news-widget .google-news' ).remove(); } else { $( '#news-block .news-widget .apple-news' ).remove(); } } } );Related: Riley Keough and Lisa Marie Presley‘s Bond Through the YearsAfter Lisa Marie Presley’s death in 2023, her eldest daughter, Riley Keough, picked up where she left off and completed her memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown. In the leadup to the book’s October 2024 release, Keough spoke publicly about her mom for the first time since Presley’s death, opening up about her mom’s […]

Benjamin’s funeral took place in Malibu, and he was later laid to rest at Graceland, which is his grandfather Elvis’ estate, in Memphis, Tennessee.

When Lisa Marie died from a heart attack at age 53, she too was buried at Graceland. Her body was laid to rest next to her father and her son.

Lisa Marie is survived by her daughter Riley and Riley’s baby girl, Tupelo, whom she welcomed with husband in 2022. Lisa Marie’s legacy also continues with her youngest daughters, twins Harper and Finley, 16, whom she shared with ex .

In this articleLisa Marie PresleyRiley Keough

Riley Keough Says Lisa Marie 'Wouldn't Care' About Backlash for Son on Ice

Riley Keough Says Lisa Marie 'Wouldn't Care' About Backlash for Son on Ice

Riley Keough Says Lisa Marie 'Wouldn't Care' About Backlash for Son on Ice

Riley Keough Says Lisa Marie 'Wouldn't Care' About Backlash for Son on Ice

Riley Keough Says Lisa Marie 'Wouldn't Care' About Backlash for Son on Ice