Chapter 3 of From Here to the Great Unknown reveals a far darker side of Lisa Marie Presley’s childhood than many people may have imagined. Behind the legendary name, the wealth, and the connection to Elvis Presley was a young girl who appeared increasingly lost after the death of her father. By her own account, Lisa was angry, rebellious, deeply unhappy, and searching desperately for somewhere—or someone—to make her feel safe.
At just 10 years old, Lisa found comfort in one of the strongest connections she still had to Elvis: gospel music. A housekeeper named Ruby would drive her to school and play gospel songs in the car, allowing Lisa to listen to the same kind of music she associated with her father. It was a small connection, but for a child who had lost Elvis at such a young age, those moments seemed to carry enormous emotional meaning.
But as the years passed, Lisa’s life began to spiral.
She attended several schools, struggled academically, skipped classes, developed a rebellious attitude, and eventually became heavily involved with drugs. Lisa openly admitted that during this period she simply did not care. School meant little to her, authority meant even less, and she intentionally sabotaged opportunities that she believed were attempts to send her away.
When Priscilla Presley began considering boarding schools, Lisa interpreted the decision as rejection. She reportedly found brochures for schools in Switzerland and even a kibbutz in Israel. Instead of trying to pass the entrance exams, Lisa deliberately failed them.
Eventually, she was sent to Happy Valley School in Ojai, California. But Lisa’s first priority was not education. By her own account, she immediately looked for drugs—and found other students living much the same way she was.
Her life became a cycle of skipping classes, getting into trouble, being caught with drugs, and returning home only to find another environment that did not feel safe or stable.
And beneath all of that chaos was a heartbreaking thought Lisa later expressed with devastating simplicity:
“I don’t know what I wanted. I probably just wanted my dad.”
That sentence may explain more about Lisa’s emotional world than any report card or disciplinary record ever could.
Lisa later described feeling disconnected from Priscilla, although she also acknowledged that her mother was dealing with an extremely difficult daughter and may not have known how to handle her. Lisa portrayed herself as melancholic, dark, moody, and increasingly self-destructive.
But the chapter takes an even more disturbing turn when Lisa describes her experiences involving Michael Edwards, Priscilla’s longtime partner at the time.
According to Lisa’s account, Edwards allegedly entered her bedroom at night and behaved inappropriately toward her while she was still a child. Lisa described this as one of the deepest traumas of her childhood, an experience that, according to reflections later included by her daughter Riley Keough, contributed to lasting feelings of shame, self-hatred, and distrust.
Lisa said she told Priscilla about what had happened. Yet the situation, according to Lisa’s recollection, did not simply disappear. She described a painful and confusing cycle in which Edwards apologized, blamed alcohol, or allegedly offered excuses for his behavior.
For a young girl already grieving her father and struggling with drugs, school, and emotional instability, these experiences appear to have added another devastating layer to her life.
The chaos inside the home was also marked by constant arguments, screaming, and alleged violence. Lisa recalled furniture being thrown and frightening confrontations between Priscilla and Edwards. In one terrifying incident in the Virgin Islands, Lisa described seeing Edwards allegedly throw Priscilla onto a bed before Lisa jumped in to protect her mother. What followed, Lisa remembered, felt like something out of a horror movie as she and Priscilla desperately tried to escape down a hallway.
Then there was Lisa’s first serious romance.
At only 14, Lisa became deeply involved with an older man she met while traveling with Priscilla. Lisa herself recognized the strange parallel between her situation and her mother’s famous relationship with Elvis: Priscilla had met Elvis when she was 14 and he was 24.
Lisa’s relationship, however, ended in betrayal.
According to her account, photographs of the couple were secretly arranged and eventually sold to the tabloids. Lisa felt used, humiliated, and devastated. The betrayal became another major emotional wound and, according to Riley, contributed to Lisa’s lifelong difficulty trusting other people.
After years of school problems, drug use, failed relationships, and instability at home, Lisa eventually ended up at the Scientology Celebrity Center. At first, even there, she continued partying and using drugs. But eventually something changed.
Lisa described reaching a breaking point. Shaking, sweating, crying, and barely able to speak, she went searching for help.
Then came an unexpected turning point.
Lisa was asked to help care for a young mother struggling with heroin addiction. Suddenly, instead of being the person everyone was trying to save, Lisa was given responsibility for someone else.
And remarkably, she thrived.
“I really thrived taking care of her, helping somebody else,” Lisa recalled.
Perhaps that was one of the first moments when Lisa Marie Presley discovered a different side of herself. Beneath the drugs, rebellion, anger, and pain was someone capable of deep loyalty, empathy, and care.
Chapter 3 is not an easy story to hear. It is a portrait of a famous daughter growing up in the enormous shadow of Elvis Presley while privately struggling with grief, addiction, trauma, betrayal, and an overwhelming desire to escape.
But it also contains the beginning of something else.
For the first time, Lisa was beginning to discover that helping another person could give her something that drugs, rebellion, and escape never could: a reason to believe that she still mattered.
And as her teenage years continued, another major figure was about to enter her life.
His name was Danny Keough.
Their relationship would change everything—and eventually lead to the birth of Lisa Marie Presley’s two children, Riley and Benjamin, while opening an entirely new and complicated chapter in the Presley family story.