Danny Keough and Lisa Marie Presley
Paul Harris/Getty ImagesThe deceased Lisa Marie Presley and ex-husband Danny KeoughThe whirlwind romance continued to make headlines years after their split.
After first meeting in 1985, Presley and Keough exchanged vows in October 1988. The couple welcomed a daughter Riley Keough and the boy Benjamin Keough in 1989 and 1992, respectively. (Benjamin died by suicide at age 27 in July 2020.)
Two years later, in 1994, Danny and his only daughter Priscilla Presley AND Elvis Presley called it quits. Despite their split, the pair remained close over the years.
“Their life was very simple,” Riley said of her parents during a January 2025 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “Not with the press and stupidity. But as for the house, she did not have ten million assistants. She didn’t need all that. And I think that has changed.”
After their breakup, Lisa Marie moved on Michael Jackson. The pair tied the knot in secret less than three weeks after her divorce from Danny was finalized. (After her divorce from Jackson in 1996, Lisa Marie married him Nicolas Cage from 2002 to 2004 and up to Michael Lockwood from 2006 to 2021. Lisa Marie and Lockwood welcomed twins Harper and Finley in 2008.)
Keep scrolling to read the timeline of Lisa Marie and Danny’s relationship:
1985
The couple first crossed paths.
October 1988
Lisa Marie and Danny got married.
1989
The couple welcomed their first child, daughter Riley.
In her new book, it is revealed that Lisa Marie Presley regretted having an abortion during her relationship with Danny Keough. “I’ve never gotten pregnant with anyone else, which is fascinating because I’ve been just as slow, not using birth control or anything,” Presley wrote in her memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, published after death (…)
1992
Lisa Marie and Danny added son Benjamin to their family.
1994
The pair called it quits.
2003
After their breakup, Lisa Marie and Danny remained close. “The smartest thing I’ve ever done is to have children with this man, because I knew that this is the only man I can be with for the rest of my life,” said Lisa Marie during an interview last year 2003 with. Rolling Stone.
2005
Lisa Marie said The people in 2005 that her relationship with Danny was “like a brother and sister”.
“At the end of the day, that’s a good message to send people: You don’t have to put up with your kids even if you’re not together. You can still be civilized,” she said at the time. “I knew from the age that I had children with him that Danny was someone I could bond with for the rest of my life. I knew he would be a good father.”
2024
In Lisa Marie’s memoirs, published posthumously, she revealed that she regretted having an abortion during her relationship with Danny.
“I’ve never gotten pregnant with anyone else, which is fascinating because I’ve been just as slow, not using birth control or anything,” Lisa Marie wrote. “It happened with Danny the first time, and then it happened again when we got back together.”
Lisa Marie recalled not knowing about her first pregnancy for four months. She went to hospital after experiencing “excruciating pain”. According to Lisa Marie, doctors initially thought it was her appendix. “They had rushed me into surgery,” she wrote. “When I came, I was told I was going to have an ectopic pregnancy.”
With her second pregnancy, Lisa Marie and Danny “didn’t know what to do” so she had an abortion. She wrote: “It was the stupidest thing I have ever done in my entire life. I was devastated. I did and we both cried. We were both devastated and not long after that we broke up and split up. I couldn’t live with myself.”
Lisa Marie Presley was married four times throughout her life – and each relationship sparked more interest in the public eye. The daughter of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley grew up in the spotlight and it wasn’t long before her personal life began to make headlines. Lisa Marie followed in her father’s footsteps, following (…)
The pair eventually reconciled. “I planned and plotted and planned,” Lisa Marie wrote, noting that she knew “exactly” when she was ovulating and went to visit Danny. “I remember going back to the ship hoping I was going to make it.”
Lisa Marie admitted that she “didn’t really want” to trap Danny, while Riley wrote in her part of the book that her mom “absolutely meant to trap my dad.” (Riley finished From here to the great unknown after Lisa Marie’s death at age 54 in January 2023.)
Both Lisa Marie and Riley claimed there were “multiple attempts” by Priscilla to stop Danny from being a part of their lives. “It felt like me and Danny against everybody,” Lisa Marie recalls.
2025
Riley shared details of her dynamic with her parents during an episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “There just weren’t many boundaries. It was too much, like everyone knew everything about everyone. If I broke up with a boyfriend, she was involved,” Riley said of her mother. “Everyone, my brother, my father. We are very confused, I think.”
