How did Elvis and Priscilla meet? What to know about the duo ahead of 'Priscilla' movie.
The latest Elvis Presley movie comes out Nov. 3, this time with Jacob Elordi taking the reins after Austin Butler’s interpretation of Elvis.
But the King isn’t the focus of the 2023 Sofia Coppola film. As the title suggests, “Priscilla” is about the early relationship between Elvis and a young Priscilla Presley (Cailee Spaeny).
Priscilla came into the public eye when she began dating Elvis at just 14 years old, and she remained there long after their divorce and Elvis’ death. Here’s how their relationship began.
How did Elvis and Priscilla meet?
Elvis, 24, met Priscilla Beaulieu in 1959 while living in West Germany. At the time, Elvis was serving in the U.S. Army and Priscilla’s stepfather was an Air Force officer.
Currie Grant, a friend of Elvis’ serving in Germany in the Air Force, introduced the pair. Currie approached Priscilla at a dinner club for American service families and invited her to Elvis’ house, she wrote in an essay published in People in 1985.
In it, she recalled Elvis’ reaction when she confessed she was only in ninth grade: “Why, you’re just a baby.”
After their first encounter, Priscilla said she “never expected to hear from him again” until Currie phoned a few days later and said Elvis would like to see her again. After the third visit, Elvis asked to see Priscilla alone. During six months of parent-sanctioned dates in Germany, Priscilla described Elvis as a “gentle, sensitive, and insecure boy” who confided “his doubts, his secrets, and his frustrations” to her. He also had a heavy influence on the teen.
“He molded me into his woman. I wore the clothes, hairstyle and makeup of his careful choosing,” she wrote in 1985.
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He returned to the U.S. in March 1960 – the subsequent months passed with infrequent phone calls from Elvis and rumors of his affairs with Hollywood starlets. Two years later, she visited him in Los Angeles under strict conditions from her parents. Here, she described a changed Elvis as “mischievous and self-confident to the point of cockiness” and “quick to anger.”
Elvis and Priscilla continued their visits during 1962. Elvis convinced her parents to let her finish out her senior year of high school in Memphis, living with Elvis’ father and stepmother with the implication they’d eventually marry.
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How old was Priscilla when she married Elvis?
Priscilla was 21 when she married Elvis on May 1, 1967. Elvis was 32. The duo wed at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. He proposed to her just before Christmas 1966 with a three-and-a-half-carat diamond ring that had 20 surrounding diamonds.
Elvis and Priscilla’s only daughter was born nine months after their wedding. Lisa Marie Presley grew up in the spotlight and remained there even after her parents divorced in 1973. Lisa Marie died in 2023 at age 54 after complications from weight loss surgery.
How old is Priscilla Presley?
Priscilla is 78 years old. She was born on May 24, 1945.
The famous Gemini has worn many hats over the years as an actress, producer and businesswoman, including as an adviser to the Graceland estate and Elvis Presley trust.
Most recently, she settled a legal dispute over the trustee of the estate after Lisa Marie died in January. Actress Riley Keough, the oldest child of Lisa Marie, will be the sole trustee over her late mother’s estate. The documents also specify that Priscilla will be buried at Graceland as near as possible to Elvis, USA TODAY previously reported.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How did Elvis and Priscilla meet? What to know before 'Priscilla' film
