On the Cannes red carpet in 2022, Priscilla Presley wore a patterned burgundy dress beside the people bringing Elvis to cinemas. The marriage that made her famous had ended almost fifty years earlier.
In between, she had played Jenna Wade on Dallas, appeared in Naked Gun films and helped keep Graceland open. She had also raised children, started businesses and written about parts of her life the wedding pictures never showed.
You can follow those changes through these forty photographs. Some are family pictures, others film images or advertisements. They cover different decades, so the younger faces and old publicity shouldn't be read as a portrait of the family today.
Early Life
Priscilla was born in Brooklyn in 1945. Her father, Navy pilot James Wagner, died in a plane crash while she was an infant. Her mother later married an Air Force officer, and the family moved as his postings changed.
Germany was one of those postings. Priscilla arrived there as a teenager with her family, rather than traveling there to meet a singer. That ordinary detail can get lost in accounts that start her life with Elvis. Before the famous surname, she was a schoolgirl adjusting to another move.
Fourteen When They Met
Priscilla met Elvis at a gathering in Germany in September 1959. She was fourteen; he was twenty-four, already famous and serving in the Army. The ten-year age difference matters to any account of how their relationship began.
They didn't immediately set up a home together. Elvis returned to the United States in 1960, while she remained with her family. Visits and phone calls followed before her later move to Memphis. The wedding came in 1967, nearly eight years after that first meeting, when Priscilla was twenty-one.
The Young Woman in the Photographs
The early photographs show how young Priscilla was beside an adult whose face was already known around the world. A posed smile can't tell you how confident either person felt, or what happened before the camera came out.
Priscilla has described the relationship repeatedly in books and interviews, sometimes with affection and sometimes with painful detail. Those are her recollections. Her retellings changed the way many readers saw the smiling couple in those pictures.
Elvis's Life Before Their Marriage
Elvis had relationships before he married Priscilla, including one with Anita Wood. His fame brought a constant stream of public attention, much of it directed at the women seen with him. That was the world Priscilla entered while still a teenager.
Priscilla's later writing describes insecurity and jealousy within that world. The publicity around Elvis followed him from film sets to the family home. His work kept him visible to millions of people while she was still finding her way through school and family life.
Her Parents Had Concerns
Priscilla's parents were involved in decisions about when she could see Elvis and, later, where she would live. She was a minor when they met, so this wasn't simply a couple arranging dates on their own.
Her later retellings describe restrictions and promises made to reassure her family. Permission didn't remove the difference in their ages or circumstances. A military family's routines were meeting a very unusual situation: their school-age daughter was spending time with one of the world's most famous adult entertainers.
The Move to Memphis
Priscilla moved to Memphis in 1963, when she was seventeen, to finish school and be closer to Elvis. Graceland became the setting most closely associated with her early adult life. The move came years after they met in Germany, rather than immediately afterward.
She later described how much of her daily life revolved around his schedule and household. School, family expectations and being near a famous boyfriend overlapped. It was a major change for a teenager, even before the marriage made her one of the most photographed women in entertainment.
An Acting Career of Her Own
Priscilla eventually became familiar to television viewers as Jenna Wade in Dallas. The role gave her an ongoing job in an ensemble whose audience had plenty to follow beyond the Presley name. She also played Jane Spencer in the original Naked Gun films.
Those performances came after her marriage had ended. They're worth remembering when a profile stops at the wedding or divorce. A publicity portrait from her acting years shows a different working life: scripts, cast photographs and characters whose stories weren't borrowed from her own marriage.
Lisa Marie's Life and Music
Lisa Marie made records of her own. To Whom It May Concern came out in 2003, followed by Now What in 2005 and Storm & Grace in 2012. She wasn't simply a baby in a famous family photograph anymore.
She was Elvis and Priscilla's only child together, born on February 1, 1968. She died in January 2023. Her daughter Riley Keough later used the recordings she left to help complete From Here to the Great Unknown, published in 2024.
Raising a Daughter in Public
The family photographs make it easy to imagine an uncomplicated childhood. Lisa Marie's own later accounts were more complicated, and Priscilla has also spoken about the difficulty of raising a child in the Presley spotlight.
After the divorce, both parents remained part of Lisa Marie's life. Graceland's chronology records their joint custody and Elvis's visits with his daughter. The pictures preserve their time together while Lisa Marie was growing up between two households and the public attention surrounding both parents.
The Viva Las Vegas Years
The woman beside Elvis in this publicity image is Ann-Margret, his co-star in Viva Las Vegas. It is a film-related photograph, rather than a picture of Priscilla. Keeping those identities straight matters in a gallery about a real marriage.
Priscilla's memoir describes her jealousy about Elvis's relationship with Ann-Margret. Elvis's screen romances and his private life were closely watched, sometimes with little separation between the two. That attention was part of Priscilla's experience, but a publicity still can't establish the details of an affair on its own.
What Home Life Felt Like to Her
In her 2025 memoir, Priscilla describes feeling caught between caring for Lisa Marie and accommodating Elvis's needs. It is a much less carefree picture than the idea of a young bride happily running a perfect household.
She recalled loneliness and a world organized around her husband, even when many people were nearby. Her account doesn't support imagining that she did every domestic task herself or that Graceland had no staff. The house was a large, busy place, and being its famous resident didn't necessarily mean feeling at home there.
Living With a Recognizable Image
That bouffant doesn't look accidental. In this portrait, the dark hair is arranged high above Priscilla's face, with a small sweep close to the forehead. Her eyes are lowered, so the outline of the hair is what you notice first.
She discussed the effort behind those looks in Vogue's Life in Looks in 2022. Building and keeping the shape took time. Fans usually saw the finished photographs, not the preparation. It was one look in a long public life, although it is the one people still copy.
Makeup and Being Seen
The eyeliner, defined brows and pale lipstick are a large part of Priscilla's early photographic style. Even a close portrait has a carefully arranged quality, with the hair framing her face and the makeup emphasizing her eyes.
She has spoken about wanting to look attractive to Elvis and about his influence on her appearance. The polished style became part of her public identity. In later years, the hairstyle changed more dramatically than the emphasis on her eyes.
Seeing Elvis as a Performer
In the family photograph, Elvis sits beside Priscilla and their baby, Lisa Marie. It is a quiet contrast with the jumpsuits and packed concert rooms that fill so many collections of his pictures.
Priscilla knew both versions of him. She wrote about home life, the people around him and the absences that came with performing. For fans, a concert might be the only time they saw Elvis. For her, it was one part of life with the man beside her in the family photographs.
Telling Her Story in Books
Elvis and Me appeared in 1985, written by Priscilla with Sandra Harmon. It gave her a way to describe the relationship in her own voice, years after Elvis's death. The book later became the basis for screen adaptations, including Sofia Coppola's 2023 film Priscilla.
Her story didn't end with that first memoir. Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, written with Mary Jane Ross, was published in 2025. Its focus extends into work, motherhood and the years after the divorce, rather than treating the marriage as her whole life.
Leaving the Marriage
Elvis and Priscilla were living apart before their divorce became final in October 1973. The photographs outside court came at the end of that process, not the day they first decided to separate.
Priscilla described her decision again in her 2025 memoir. In an excerpt published by Oprah Daily, she said she still loved Elvis but needed a life of her own. She wrote about loneliness inside his household and the strain of trying to please him while caring for Lisa Marie. That is her account of why she left.
Six Years as Husband and Wife
The dates are plain enough: May 1, 1967, for the wedding; October 9, 1973, for the divorce. A little over six years passed between them.
The two had first met in 1959, so marriage occupied only part of their time together. Priscilla was twenty-one at the Aladdin Hotel ceremony, and a mother by the following February. The photo of them side by side in aircraft seats preserves the familiar couple. Her later career happened after they had gone their separate ways.
After Elvis Died
Elvis died in August 1977, four years after the divorce. Priscilla has described her grief in later books and interviews. By then, he was her former husband and the father of their nine-year-old daughter, rather than her current spouse.
The loss also changed the family's practical responsibilities. In the years that followed, the future of Graceland became a serious concern. Priscilla's later work on the estate grew out of that period, alongside the personal task of helping Lisa Marie live with her father's absence.
The Influence on Her Appearance
Look at their hair in the wedding photograph. His is swept back; hers is piled high under the veil. Both are dark, making the pale fabric and flowers stand out even more.
Priscilla later said Elvis had opinions about her clothes and makeup, as well as her hair. That's her recollection of how this appearance took shape. By the time she told the story in Elvis and Me, the wedding photographs had been circulating for almost twenty years. Readers finally had more than the finished look to go on.
The Private Life Behind a Portrait
An intense portrait of Elvis is familiar material in a Presley gallery. It doesn't show an argument or tell us what happened inside the home. Priscilla's published recollections, including descriptions of fear and isolation, have to be identified as her account.
Her later writing returns to the loneliness of being surrounded by people whose lives revolved around her husband. In that account, leaving was a way to find room for herself. It helps explain why the story she tells differs from the glamorous image fans saw.
Helping Keep Graceland Open
After Vernon Presley died in 1979, Priscilla became one of the estate's co-executors. Maintaining Graceland was expensive, and she worked with advisers and Jack Soden on opening the house to visitors. Tours began on June 7, 1982.
She didn't inherit the mansion outright or act entirely alone. Lisa Marie was its beneficiary, and the work involved a team. Graceland's own history explains how the visitor business developed. Priscilla's role was substantial without needing a doubtful estimate of Elvis's fortune or a claim that she personally owned everything.
Work Beyond the Presley Household
Bis & Beau was a Beverly Hills shop, with Olivia Bis and Priscilla working together on clothes. It belongs to the 1970s part of her story. The later advertisements show her name and face being used to sell fragrances.
Then there were the acting jobs. Dallas viewers knew her as Jenna Wade; the original Naked Gun films took her into comedy. These projects didn't all happen at once. She moved between them across the years, building a working life that can't be reduced to the six-year marriage.
A Name on a Fragrance Bottle
The fragrance advertisement uses Priscilla's portrait as part of the product's identity. Her hair and makeup are recognizable, but the object being promoted is something a customer could buy under her name, rather than a ticket to an Elvis performance.
Fragrance was one of several commercial areas she entered. The photograph belongs to that history, not necessarily to a product currently on sale. Old advertisements can remain in circulation for decades after a launch, so the image alone doesn't establish a present-day range, stockist or new business announcement.
Mother and Daughter in the Public Eye
Priscilla is on the right in this portrait, with Lisa Marie leaning close beside her. It is an earlier family photograph, taken before Lisa Marie's death.
Lisa Marie died in January 2023. Priscilla addressed the loss in Softly, As I Leave You, published in 2025. Their lives together had included Lisa Marie's own records and children, as well as the appearances where cameras followed them both. For a reader coming to these photographs now, that date matters: mother and daughter are pictured together here, but this isn't a recent reunion.
Lisa Marie's Marriage to Michael Jackson
Lisa Marie married Michael Jackson in 1994, bringing together two people whose lives were already heavily photographed. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Images of them together remain part of the period's entertainment history.
Priscilla has spoken publicly about concerns she had for her daughter. That doesn't make it possible to state Jackson's private motives as fact. Lisa Marie also left her own account of that relationship. Keeping their perspectives distinct gives her more of a voice than simply repeating what other people thought about her marriage.
The Next Generation
Lisa Marie had four children: Riley and Benjamin Keough, and twins Harper and Finley Lockwood. Benjamin died in 2020. Lisa Marie's death followed in 2023, leaving three surviving children and a family dealing with another major loss.
The photograph here shows Lisa Marie with the twins. It isn't evidence of a current custody arrangement involving Priscilla. Later estate responsibilities are also separate from parenting: Graceland identifies Riley as the sole trustee for her and her sisters' interests. Family photographs don't explain those legal roles on their own.
Her Son, Navarone
Priscilla also has a son, musician Navarone Garibaldi, from her relationship with Marco Garibaldi. Her family story therefore extends beyond the child she had with Elvis. Photographs of Priscilla and Navarone show another part of her life that receives less attention than the wedding pictures.
Navarone's work with Them Guns took him into a different corner of music from Elvis's recordings or Lisa Marie's albums. The family connection draws attention, but the band has its own songs and sound.
The 2022 Elvis Film
Baz Luhrmann's Elvis was released in 2022, with Austin Butler playing Elvis and Olivia DeJonge playing Priscilla. The film approaches the singer's life through a much wider performance and career story, rather than staying solely with the marriage.
The image pairing Butler with Elvis makes the resemblance part of the appeal. It is a comparison between an actor and the person he portrays, not two documentary photographs of Elvis. That difference is easy to miss when movie stills are mixed with family pictures in the same gallery.
Playing Priscilla on Screen
Olivia DeJonge's Priscilla in Elvis belongs to Luhrmann's interpretation of the story. The film's costumes and styling help establish the period, while the performance has to suggest a person within a much larger cast of characters.
Another film took a different approach. Sofia Coppola's Priscilla, released in 2023, starred Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi and was based on Elvis and Me. These are separate productions with different actors and viewpoints. The still here is from Elvis, rather than a photograph of the real couple or an image from Coppola's film.
Priscilla and the Film's Public Life
Priscilla walked the Cannes red carpet with Austin Butler for Elvis in 2022. In the photograph, his black suit and white shirt sit beside her patterned burgundy dress. The young couple in the earlier family photographs now belongs to a much more distant time.
She spoke warmly about Butler's performance during the film's release. He was playing a man she had known at home, before the marriage and after it. At the premiere, that personal history became part of a new film's public introduction.
The Famous Bouffant
The volume in Priscilla's early hairstyle is hard to miss. Her dark hair rises well above her head, with the shape balanced by precise eye makeup and a high neckline. In a small portrait, the outline can do much of the work.
She later talked about the time needed to create and maintain the style in her Vogue Life in Looks video. It was an arranged look, built with support and careful styling. Later photographs show different colors and shapes, rather than one hairstyle she kept unchanged for the rest of her life.
A More Relaxed Fashion Photograph
The red cap has Hawaii written across its white patch. Below it, Priscilla wears a pale blue outfit with a zip front, rolled sleeves and a tie at the waist. One hand is raised beside her ear as she walks along the pavement.
It is a very different picture from the formal wedding poses. No towering veil or matching dark suit here. The loose trousers and cap make a more casual combination, with shop windows and the pavement taking the place of a carefully arranged family backdrop.
The Wedding Dress
Priscilla's wedding outfit combined a white dress, sheer sleeves and a long veil held high above her dark hair. Beside Elvis's dark suit, it made a strong contrast in both color photographs and the black-and-white images printed at the time.
The ceremony took place at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas in May 1967. In later recollections, she described trying to choose the dress without alerting photographers. The finished wedding image looks carefully composed, but shopping for it involved the practical problem of being recognized before the couple wanted the news out.
A Bright Pink Family Photograph
Pink fills much of this family photograph. Priscilla's dress has long sleeves and a pointed collar, with the strong color standing out beside Elvis's darker clothes. Baby Lisa Marie is held between them.
Lisa Marie was born in February 1968, in the first year of the marriage. These are the real parents with their daughter, rather than actors recreating the moment. The dress has become one of the looks associated with that period, alongside the white wedding outfit and the dark hair that frames Priscilla's face.
The Courthouse Outfit
The wedding veil was gone by the time they appeared outside court in 1973. Priscilla wore a long patterned dress, and her hair fell much closer to her head than in the earlier bouffant portraits. Elvis walked beside her.
Their divorce was granted on October 9. Graceland's chronology says they remained close afterward and shared custody of Lisa Marie. The photograph is often used to illustrate that parting. The clothes also place it in another stage of Priscilla's life, years before Dallas made her a regular television presence.
The Boutique Years
Priscilla opened Bis & Beau in Beverly Hills with Olivia Bis during the 1970s. Clothing was an area in which she could make choices with a business partner, beyond the wardrobe associated with her marriage. The shop was part of establishing a working identity as her family life changed.
In this photograph, a dark outfit has a floral upper section and a high waist. The pattern draws attention to the shoulders and sleeves, while the lower half stays comparatively plain. It's a change from the closely coordinated wedding look.
Another Seventies Silhouette
In this photograph, Priscilla wears a fitted trouser outfit with wide lower legs. The long vertical line and flared shape contrast with the fuller dresses and towering hair seen in her earlier portraits. Her pose lets the outline of the clothes remain easy to see.
The outfit has the fitted waist and long legs associated with seventies fashion photographs. Behind her, the brickwork gives the pale material a darker background. There's little of the formal wedding portrait in either the setting or the pose.
At the 2022 Met Gala
Priscilla wore a long black Prada outfit to the 2022 Met Gala. A broad dark headband kept her red hair away from her face, while bright detail across the sleeves broke up the black.
She appeared as part of the group connected with Elvis. Director Baz Luhrmann, Austin Butler and Olivia DeJonge were among the people representing the film at the event. It was another public appearance for Priscilla during that release year, with fashion and the film's promotion coming together on the same red carpet.
On the Cannes Red Carpet
The patterned burgundy dress Priscilla wore around the Cannes premiere of Elvis offered another change from her familiar dark outfits. Its color works closely with her red hair, while the long sleeves and simple overall shape leave the pattern visible.
These later photographs sit beside the earlier family images, but decades of work separate them. Acting, books, business and the preservation of Graceland had all become parts of her life. She still carried the Presley name onto the carpet, with a history that extended far beyond the six years she spent married to Elvis.
