Lisa Marie Presley's friend says she wanted trust left to children

Lisa Marie Presley’s friend claims she wanted her trust left to children after assigning daughter Riley Keough as trustee… as mom Priscilla Presley moves to invalidate the will

• Lisa Marie Presley removed her mother Priscilla as trustee in 2016
• Now, her friend says that she intended daughter Riley to take over as trustee
• They claim Lisa had a falling out with her mother at the time of the shakeup 

Lisa Marie Presley reportedly wanted her children to have access to her trust and wanted her oldest daughter Riley Keough to manage it, a close friend claims.

‘Lisa’s intent was very clear,’ the friend said while speaking to People on Monday. ‘Lisa really didn’t feel that [mother] Priscilla Presley was doing anything in her best interest.’

The latest claim comes as Lisa’s mother Priscilla, 77, is challenging a 2016 revision to her will that removed her and Lisa’s former business manager Barry Siegel as mangers of her trust and replacing them with Riley, 33.

The family controversy follows Presley’s tragic death on January 12 at age 54, after she went into cardiac arrest at home and had to be rushed to a hospital after CPR was performed.

Speaking up: A friend of Lisa Marie Presley claimed to People on Monday that she intended her daughter Riley Keough, 33, to take over her trust after she had a falling out with her mother Priscilla Presley; Lisa and Riley seen in 2017

DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for Riley Keough and Priscilla Presley. 

According to Priscilla’s petition, obtained by People, Lisa had a living will dating back to 1993, which was amended in 2010 to make Priscilla and Siegel co-trustees.

But following Lisa’s death, her mother learned of an initial amendment from 2016 that removed her and Siegel and trustees and replaced them with Riley and her brother Benjamin Keough, who died by suicide in 2020.

Lisa’s wishes for trustees don’t appear to have been updated following her son’s death.

In Priscilla’s petition, she claims there are ‘many issues surrounding the authenticity and validity’ of the 2016 will amendment.

Fighting back: Priscilla is challenging a 2016 will amendment removing her as trustee. She says the signature isn’t valid and claims she wasn’t notified, as required by the trust. She also says the amendment wasn’t witnessed or notarized; Priscilla and Lisa seen in 2008

According to her, she should have been informed that she was being removed as co-trustee, ‘as required by the express terms of the Trust,’ but she says she was never informed.

The ex-wife of Elvis Presley also claims that her daughter’s signature on the 2016 amendment was ‘inconsistent’ with previous signatures, and she says there also was not a witness listed, nor a notary present. 

She says the 2010 amendment listing her as a co-trustee is still ‘the authoritative and controlling document.’

Although the friend doesn’t appear to vouch for the authenticity of the 2016 amendment, they claim that it was in line with Lisa’s wishes at the time, as she had allegedly had a major falling out with her mother.

They say that as of 2016, she ‘did not have a relationship’ with her mother, though the two appear to have patched things up to a degree after appearing at several events and award ceremonies to promote Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, which stars Austin Butler as the legendary rocker.

Bad blood: Part of Lisa’s falling out with Priscilla was due to her mother continuing to have a relationship with her ex-husband Michael Lockwood (pictured) against her wishes, the friend claimed; seen in 2013

One sticking point was allegedly Priscilla’s insistence on continuing to have a relationship with Lisa’s ex-husband Michael Lockwood following their 2016 split. The divorce was finalized in 2021.

Lockwood apparently was not invited to Lisa’s funeral, but Priscilla — who shares an agent with him — managed to get him into the ceremony, her friend says.

In 2017, Lisa had accused her ex of having inappropriate images of children on his compute amid their custody battle.  

Although police investigated and examined dozens of electronic devices, no criminal charges were filed and the investigation was ultimately dropped. 

Lisa’s friend said Lisa’s will amendment was part of her desire to live ‘her life authentically.’

‘She wouldn’t remain quiet when she was being taken advantage of,’ they continued. ‘At the end of the day, these are her wishes, and there’s no question as to what her wishes were. No one’s going to be able to reinvent the last seven or eight years and say no, no, no.’

Honoring her wishes: ‘At the end of the day, these are her wishes, and there’s no question as to what her wishes were,’ the friend said. ‘No one’s going to be able to reinvent the last seven or eight years and say no, no, no’; seen in 2012

It wasn’t just personal issues that led her to want to change the trust, as Lisa’s friend said she ‘had a major issue’ with how it was run under her mother and Siegel’s watch.

In 2018, she sued Siegel, claiming that his mismanagement led her trust to shrink from $100 million to just $14,000. However, he claimed that the loss in funds was due to her extravagant spending.

‘There’s substantial documentation that basically Lisa was the only trustee,’ her friend claims. ‘Priscilla did not participate in anything, as [Siegel also] hadn’t for years before… At the end of the day, a trustee is supposed to have limited power — they’re supposed to not be able to do anything bad or stupid. No one can argue that Riley being the trustee is going to not be to the benefit of the twins.’

Going solo: The friend claims that Priscilla hadn’t been working as her trustee for years, leaving her to essentially manage the trust herself; Lisa and Priscilla seen in June 2022 in Hollywood

Source: Read Full Article