Why Lisa Marie Presley kept son's body at home for two months after his death
Lisa Marie Presley was so heartbroken by the loss of her only son, Benjamin Keough, at just 27-years-old in 2020, that she kept his body in her home for two months after his death.
The star revealed this in her memoir From Here to the Great Unknown, which was finished by her daughter Riley Keough after the 54-year-old’s death in January 2023, according to Page Six.
In the book, Lisa Marie opened up about the extent of her grief, saying that she had to force herself to "fight" to stay alive for her remaining children, and one of the ways she coped was not saying goodbye to Benjamin right away.
“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,” Lisa Marie wrote.
“I found a very empathetic funeral homeowner. I told her that 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. She said, ‘We’ll bring Ben Ben to you.’”
The room was kept at around 12 degrees celsius to preserve his body, and the star continued saying that she felt “fortunate that there was a way that I could still parent him, delay it a bit longer so that I could become okay with laying him to rest.”
Another reason why she decided to keep his body was because she wasn't sure whether to bury him in Hawaii or at Graceland, the Memphis estate where Elvis died and is buried.
At one point, Riley and Lisa Marie decided to honour Benjamin by getting matching tattoos of his name, which was inscribed in the same place where Benjamin had his tattoos.
Riley recalled the odd moment Lisa Marie brought in the tattoo artist into her home.
“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. I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five," Riley wrote in the memoir.
Lisa Marie acknowledged that it was odd, and soon after the tattoo day, they "got the vibe" that Benjamin wanted to be laid to rest.
“Even my mum said that she could feel him talking to her, saying ‘This is insane, Mum, what are you doing? What the f**k!”
The family held a funeral for Benjamin in Malibu, and he was buried at Graceland alongside Elvis, and now Lisa Marie as well.
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