Priscilla Presley sat down to open up about the age gap between her and her former husband, Elvis Presley. The now 78-year-old actress was just 14 years old, while the "Can't Help Falling In Love" singer was 24 years old at the time.
The two were married for six years, from 1967 to 1973, and shared one child together, daughter Lisa Marie Presley. At the Venice Film Festival press conference for Sofia Coppola’s upcoming biopic, Priscilla, the late rock 'n' roll star's former wife explained their relationship more in depth.
Priscilla explained that Elvis respected her age when they first met. Their paths crossed when they met on a military base in Germany.
“People think, ‘Oh, it was sex.’ No, it wasn’t,” she explained. “I never had sex with him. He was very kind, very soft, very loving, but he also respected the fact I was only 14 years old. We were more in line in thought, and that was our relationship.”
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“It was very difficult for my parents to understand that Elvis would be so interested in me and why. And I really do think because I was more of a listener," she continued. "Elvis would pour his heart out to me in every way in Germany: his fears, his hopes, the loss of his mother — which he never, ever got over. And I was the person who really, really sat there to listen and to comfort him. That was really our connection.”
“Even though I was 14, I was actually a little bit older in life — not in numbers," Priscilla clarified. "That was the attraction.”
In an earlier interview, she had also shared that many didn't see the depths of their relationship at the time, and she herself didn't know how serious it was.
“I didn’t know why he put so much trust in me, but he did. And I never, ever, ever told anyone that I was seeing him, and that was another issue that he loved, is the fact that I never gave him up in any way," she said. "I never told anyone at school that I was seeing him. So we built a relationship and then our relationship went on until yes, I left.”
The two divorced after numerous rumors of Elvis having affairs, and Priscilla's own affair with her dance instructor. "I came out of it realizing I needed much more out of my relationship with Elvis," she quoted in her book, Elvis and Me.
"It wasn’t because I didn’t love him — he was the love of my life,” she said about their separation. “It was the lifestyle that was so difficult for me, and I think any woman can relate to that.”
“But it didn’t mar our relationship; we still remained very, very close," she said. "And of course, we had our daughter [Lisa Marie], and I made sure that he saw her all the time. It was like we never left each other.”
