Lisa Marie Presley Calls Abortion She Had While Dating Danny Keough 'Stupidest Thing I've Ever Done'

Mar. 15, 2025

Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough.Photo:Alamy

Alamy

Lisa Marie Presleyrevealed she regretted having an abortion in her new memoir.In her bookFrom Here to the Great Unknown, published posthumously, the daughter ofElvis Presleyshared that she had an abortion while in her relationship with Danny Keough.“The first time I got pregnant I didn’t even know it. During the first four months we dated I had ended up in the ER with horrible pains and they rushed me into surgery,” Presley writes. “The doctors thought it was my appendix, but when I came around, they told me I’d had an ectopic pregnancy (while they were in there they took my appendix out, too).““I had never gotten pregnant with any other person, which is fascinating because I’d been equally sloppy, not using birth control or whatever. But with Danny it happened that first time, and then it happened again when we got back together.“Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.Lisa Marie Presley.Bryan Steffy/WireImagePresley — who died at age 54 in January 2023 of a small bowel obstruction, a long-term complication from bariatric surgery — writes that the second time she got pregnant, she didn’t know what to do, and neither did Keough.“I ended up having an abortion. And it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life. I was devastated,” Presley remembers. “I did it and we both cried. We were both destroyed and not long after that we fell apart and broke up. I couldn’t live with myself.“Saying that she couldn’t get over the fact that she had an abortion, Presley shares that she “planned and plotted and schemed” to figure out when she was ovulating, and then followed Keough onto a cruise ship where his band was performing.Danny Keough and Lisa Marie Presley.Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty"I didn’t care if he wanted to be a part of it or not. I felt that I had to redeem, to make amends, because I still couldn’t believe I had had an abortion,” Presley says. “I thought, I’m going to have this child. There is a child I need to be having.““I would be talking to the lost child, saying, ‘I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I f—— did that. Please forgive me and stay with me until I get pregnant again.'“Once she left Aruba, Presley waited two weeks and then discovered she was pregnant. The two then got married, with Presley admitting that she “trapped him. I didn’t really mean to, but I did.“Their daughter Riley Keough was born in 1989 and they later had a son, Benjamin Storm.From Here to the Great Unknownis available now.

Lisa Marie Presleyrevealed she regretted having an abortion in her new memoir.

In her bookFrom Here to the Great Unknown, published posthumously, the daughter ofElvis Presleyshared that she had an abortion while in her relationship with Danny Keough.

“The first time I got pregnant I didn’t even know it. During the first four months we dated I had ended up in the ER with horrible pains and they rushed me into surgery,” Presley writes. “The doctors thought it was my appendix, but when I came around, they told me I’d had an ectopic pregnancy (while they were in there they took my appendix out, too).”

“I had never gotten pregnant with any other person, which is fascinating because I’d been equally sloppy, not using birth control or whatever. But with Danny it happened that first time, and then it happened again when we got back together.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Lisa Marie Presley.Bryan Steffy/WireImage

Bryan Steffy/WireImage

Presley — who died at age 54 in January 2023 of a small bowel obstruction, a long-term complication from bariatric surgery — writes that the second time she got pregnant, she didn’t know what to do, and neither did Keough.

“I ended up having an abortion. And it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life. I was devastated,” Presley remembers. “I did it and we both cried. We were both destroyed and not long after that we fell apart and broke up. I couldn’t live with myself.”

Saying that she couldn’t get over the fact that she had an abortion, Presley shares that she “planned and plotted and schemed” to figure out when she was ovulating, and then followed Keough onto a cruise ship where his band was performing.

Danny Keough and Lisa Marie Presley.Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty

“I didn’t care if he wanted to be a part of it or not. I felt that I had to redeem, to make amends, because I still couldn’t believe I had had an abortion,” Presley says. “I thought, I’m going to have this child. There is a child I need to be having.”

“I would be talking to the lost child, saying, ‘I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I f—— did that. Please forgive me and stay with me until I get pregnant again.'”

Once she left Aruba, Presley waited two weeks and then discovered she was pregnant. The two then got married, with Presley admitting that she “trapped him. I didn’t really mean to, but I did.”

Their daughter Riley Keough was born in 1989 and they later had a son, Benjamin Storm.

From Here to the Great Unknownis available now.

source: people.com