Lisa Marie ex Michael Lockwood accused her of using 'Fair Game' tactic

EXCLUSIVE: Lisa Marie Presley’s ex accused her of using Scientology ‘Fair Game’ tactics, where an ‘enemy may be lied to, cheated, tricked, or destroyed by any means’ to avoid paying $40k a month child support, papers filed just before her death reveal

• Michael Lockwood and Lisa Marie Presley married in 2006 and had twin daughters in 2008 – before splitting up in 2016 in a bitter divorce
• In court papers filed last month, Lockwood demanded that Presley pay $40,000 a month in child support and claimed she was hiding her assets 
• Even after Lisa Marie’s death, Lockwood faces a custody battle with her family over their 14-year-old twins Finley and Harper 

Lisa Marie Presley’s ex-husband accused her of using Scientology against him in a bitter court filing two weeks before her death.

Michael Lockwood, 61, said that Presley, with whom he shares twin daughters, was employing ‘Fair Game’ tactics to thwart his attempts to make her pay $40,000 a month in child support.

He said Fair Game meant that ‘any enemy may be lied to, cheated, tricked, or destroyed by any means without discipline’ and Presley, who renounced Scientology, was deploying it on him.

Lockwood wrote that he had spent $1million on legal fees battling with Presley and that he may have to declare bankruptcy because of the strain on his finances.

The filing gives a new insight into the pressures that Presley, 54, the only daughter of Elvis Presley, faced in her final weeks.

Michael Lockwood and Lisa Marie Presley married in 2006 and had twin daughters in 2008 – before splitting in 2016 in a bitter divorce. They are pictured in 2015

In court papers filed last month, now-bearded Lockwood demanded that Presley pay $40,000 a month in child support and claimed she was hiding her assets. He is pictured immediately after Lisa Marie’s death  

The former couple share 14-year-old twin daughters Finley and Harper, who are said to be greatly traumatized by their mother’s sudden passing. Pictured in 2017

Presley died last Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest at the $4million Calabasas home she shared with first husband Danny Keough. Her 14-year-old twins Finley and Harper Lockwood and her daughter Riley Keough, 33, are refusing to return there because they are so traumatized by her death.

A funeral service is due to take place on Sunday at Graceland, Elvis Presley’s estate in Memphis, Tennessee. She was buried in the grounds next to her son Benjamin – who committed suicide in 2020 – on Thursday.

Lockwood, a musician who was Presley’s fourth husband, lost his 2016 bid in their divorce to undo their prenup, but he reopened the case in 2021.

In court papers he demanded that she pay $40,000 a month in child support and claimed she was hiding her assets.

The latest filing was added to the court docket in Los Angeles on December 28 when Lockwood accused Presley of using ‘shell companies’ to hide her assets.

He alleged that she failed to hand over basic financial paperwork so that her actual wealth could be assessed by a forensic accountant he had hired.

Lockwood, who has custody of the twins, included a bill from his lawyers Yanny & Smith which ran to $48,000 to show how expensive it had been to battle with Presley.

He wrote: ‘I have had to change attorneys more than three times, and I still owe my prior attorneys for my invoices that I do not know how I will ever be able to pay and may have to discharge in bankruptcy.

‘With this history, I have incurred over a million dollars in legal fees. I have incurred well over 400-500 thousand dollars just fighting the malicious frivolous and false allegations against me in both dependency court and before this court.

‘This is exactly what Petitioner has tried to do. She has put me in debt, defamed me, tried to take my children away from me, and it is now that I am finally restoring my name and relationship with my children after many years of alienation and ‘Fair Game’ tactics’.

Lisa Marie claimed in 2017 that she discovered ‘disturbing and inappropriate photographs of children on Lockwood’s computer. 

‘I was shocked and horrified and sick to my stomach. My understanding is that Tennessee law enforcement is also conducting an investigation related to the photos and videos that I discovered. 

Lockwood was never charged.

The twins were briefly placed in care of California’s Department of Children and Family Services before Lisa Marie’s mother Priscilla took them in

Lisa Marie’s last public appearance was at the Golden Globes just two days before her death 

‘The backyard of Graceland is a graveyard, basically,’ Lisa Marie told Playboy in 2003. She is now buried alongside her father, grandparents and son

Lockwood accused Presley of employing Scientology ‘Fair Game’ tactics, which means that an ‘enemy may be lied to, cheated, tricked, or destroyed by any means’ 

Lockwood, who has custody of the twins, included a bill from his lawyers Yanny & Smith which ran to $48,000 to show how expensive it had been to battle with Presley

Lockwood said that Presley was raised in a ‘particular belief system’, a thinly veiled reference to Scientology which she joined aged 11 and left in 2014.

Presley turned against the belief and was due to be the star witness in the rape case retrial of That 70s Show star and Scientologist Danny Masterson.

Lockwood wrote: ‘It is inevitable that she still holds some of the beliefs of that belief system, especially the ‘Fair Game’ practice, which includes targeting ‘enemies’ by ruining reputation and doing other unethical behaviors.

‘According to the ‘Fair Game’ practice, an ‘enemy may be lied to, cheated, tricked, or destroyed by any means without discipline’.

‘I believe this is exactly what (Presley) has done to me during our legal proceedings with the willing assistance of her current counsel’.

In an interview Leah Remini, the actress and former Scientologist who has become one of the most vocal critics of the religion, said that ‘Fair Gaming’ was carried out by its Office of Special Affairs.

She said that the office was ‘dedicated to anyone telling the truth about Scientology’ and that Fair Gaming ‘says that anyone who is speaking out against Scientology is to be Fair Gamed, and that means to be utterly destroyed.’

This could be physically and mentally and it means to ‘find out what that person seeks to protect and go after it, you can cost them their reputation, their job, their family’, Remini said.

Lockwood accused his ex wife of using ‘Fair Game’, tactics allegedly used by the Church of Scientology against critics, as they battled over custody of their twins, pictured here in 2011

Lockwood said that Presley was raised in a ‘particular belief system’, a thinly veiled reference to Scientology which she joined at 11 and left in 2014

Presley leaves behind three grieving daughters, Riley, 33, and 14-year-old twins Finley and Harper, after she died suddenly aged 54

Court documents filed in the case last November revealed that Presley was spending more than $92,000 a month before her death and owed the IRS $1million after squandering her father’s $100million fortune.

Presley was bringing in more than $100,000 a month from her father’s estate and businesses but she was spending more than $92,000 a month.

Her monthly expenses include $23,500 in rent and $1,078 for a Maserati car.

The documents show that Presley had $95,266 in cash assets, $714,775 in stocks and bonds, and that she owed $1million to the IRS.

With her total worth minus her debts, she was estimated to be worth $4million.

Such was the precarious state of her finances that at one point she was $16million in debt due to disastrous business deals made by her business manager Barry Siegel. That included $10million owed to the IRS.

Presley was married to actor Keough – Riley’s father – Michael Jackson, and Nicolas Cage before Lockwood.

She was left her father’s entire estate in his will when he died in 1977, aged 42, and took control of the trust in 1993 when she turned 25.

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