Lisa Marie Presley was on opioids and weight loss meds before death, report claims

Songstress lost '40 to 50 pounds' before death

Lisa Marie Presley had been using opioids and weight loss medication prior to her death at age 54 earlier this month, according to a new report.

As the daughter of the late Elvis Presley began preparing herself to promote Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic on the awards show circuit, sources tell TMZ that Lisa Marie underwent “plastic surgery and began taking weight loss meds” in order to look her best.

In the lead up to her final red carpet appearance at the Golden Globes earlier this month, Lisa Marie reportedly lost “40 to 50 pounds.” Sources also tell TMZ that the singer was taking opioids again.

During an interview with Extra before the awards show, Lisa Marie appeared unsteady and grasped the arm of Jerry Schilling — a longtime friend of her late father — while speaking with host Billy Bush.

“I’m gonna grab your arm,” she said mid-chat.

Bush said he knew instantly that something was wrong with Lisa Marie during their brief conversation.

“She was very uneven in her balance,” Bush told Fox Los Angeles. “The speech was very slow. And, definitely, when the interview was over, I turned to my producer next to me and said, ‘Something’s off here.’”

Bush went on to add that Lisa Marie was unable to climb two steps to a platform where he was positioned and he had to go down to her. “She was was cognizant. She was certainly with it, just a second slow,” he said. “But she was there. She was definitely there, but just a tad off in some way.”

“This is a woman who just encountered so much grief in her life,” Bush told PEOPLE in a separate interview, referencing Lisa Marie’s loss of her father when she was nine and the death of her only son, Benjamin Keough, from suicide in 2020. “It’s just impossible to fathom.”

As she praised Austin Butler’s Golden Globe-winning depiction of her dad, fans said she looked “ill” and “tired.”

“You can see she was unwell and I was shocked because I haven’t seen her in a while,” one person commented on YouTube.

“It’s so heartbreaking to see her so frail,” another added. “But I think it’s even sadder to look at her tired eyes and realize how much she’s seen throughout her life.”

The revelations of Lisa Marie’s drastic weight loss and use of opioids comes as her mother Priscilla filed legal documents to dispute who will oversee her daughter’s estate.

Priscilla is questioning the validity of a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s living trust that removed her mother and a former business manager as trustees and replaced them with two of her children, Riley Keough and Benjamin, if she died or became incapacitated.

Priscilla’s court filing says there are several issues that bring the living trust amendment’s authenticity into doubt, including the misspelling of her name, the validity of Lisa Marie’s signature and a lack of a witness or notarization.

But is not clear how much Lisa Marie’s estate is worth. In 2018, Lisa Marie alleged the trust had been mismanaged and sued her former business manager Barry Siegel. Reports suggested that the songstress blew through $100 million and was spending $92,000 a month before her death. Lisa Marie was allegedly $4 million in debt when she died and owed the IRS $2.5 million.

Earlier this week, TMZ reported that Lisa Marie had taken out multiple life insurance polices that may be worth an upwards of $35 million.

Lisa Marie is survived by daughter Riley, 33, and twins Finley Aaron Love and Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood, 14. Her cause of death on Jan. 12 has not yet been determined.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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