“THE KISSES NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO SEE”: What Really Happened Between Elvis and His Leading Ladies on His Final Film Set
For decades, the official story sounded clean and respectable. No scandals. No forbidden kisses. No behind-the-scenes betrayals.
But the set of Change of Habit may have been hiding far more heat than anyone was willing to admit.
In 1969, Elvis Presley filmed what would become his final feature movie. Paired with beloved TV star Mary Tyler Moore, the film cast Elvis as a hip doctor and Mary as a nun — a wholesome setup that suggested innocence, restraint, and respect.
Behind the cameras? A very different story may have been unfolding.
Mary Tyler Moore publicly denied any romantic involvement with Elvis. Even in later years, she insisted that whatever chemistry existed was one-sided — a distant crush Elvis had carried since watching her on The Dick Van Dyke Show. In her memoir, she described Elvis as charming, respectful, and completely appropriate.
But then came the bombshell.
Nearly 50 years later, a journalist who was on set in 1969 claimed she witnessed something that directly contradicted Mary’s version. According to her account, Elvis and Mary would lie together on a blanket between takes — in full view of cast and crew — kissing passionately for long stretches of time. Not polite pecks. Not friendly gestures. But full, lingering embraces that looked like two teenagers lost in a summer crush.
Why didn’t she report it back then? She later admitted it made her uncomfortable — two married adults behaving like reckless lovers — and she convinced herself this kind of thing must happen on movie sets all the time.
If that wasn’t shocking enough, another woman’s story added fuel to the fire.
Actress Jane Elliot, who played one of the nuns in the film, later hinted that Elvis’s real off-screen romance may have been with her, not Mary. A director even claimed Jane would disappear into Elvis’s trailer between setups and return with her costume slightly… disheveled. Years later, when asked directly whether she and Elvis slept together, Jane gave a cryptic answer that stopped fans cold: “I’m not going to tell you that we didn’t.”
And then there was Darlene Love.
In her memoir, Darlene revealed that Elvis made a bold pass at her in his trailer during filming. The moment shocked her — not because of who he was, but because of how suddenly the energy changed. She turned him down, and later admitted the incident made her uneasy for the rest of the shoot.
Three women. Three wildly different stories. One legendary man at the center of it all.
So who was telling the truth?
Was Mary Tyler Moore protecting her image? Was Elvis quietly living out forbidden romances on his final film set? Or was the truth buried somewhere between memory, myth, and the legend of the King?
One thing is certain: The cameras weren’t the only things rolling on the set of Change of Habit.
