THE SECRET LIFE AFTER ELVIS: Priscilla Presley, Marco Garibaldi, AND THE FAMILY SECRETS THAT REFUSED TO DISAPPEAR
What really happened behind the carefully controlled image of Priscilla Presley’s life after Elvis?
For years, the public knew Priscilla primarily as Elvis Presley’s former wife—the young woman who entered his world as a teenager, became his wife, and eventually walked away from the marriage. But after Elvis died, Priscilla built an entirely different life. And when Marco Garibaldi entered that life, questions about marriage, secrecy, family, and the Presley legacy followed them for decades.
Some of the most controversial stories surrounding Priscilla and Marco come from biographies and accounts written about the Presley family. One particularly intriguing subject concerns Marco’s previous relationships and the uncertainty surrounding the legal and personal history of his marriages.
According to accounts discussed in Child Bride, Marco had previously been married. His explanation of one earlier marriage was that it had been entered into for immigration or citizenship purposes and therefore, in his view, was not a conventional marriage. Other accounts, however, presented those relationships differently. Former wife Carolyn Garcia reportedly remembered Marco warmly and described him as a good man, while another former wife, Joanne Nielsen, also spoke about his personality.
That conflicting history became important because Priscilla herself had already lived through a complicated relationship with marriage.
Her relationship with Elvis had begun when she was extremely young. By the time she became an adult, she had experienced fame, motherhood, divorce, and the enormous public attention that came with being Elvis Presley’s wife. Her later relationship with Marco therefore represented something very different: a chance to build a private family life away from the shadow of Graceland.
Then came one of the most important moments of that chapter.
Priscilla became pregnant with Marco’s child.
They eventually chose the name Navarone Anthony Garibaldi, with Marco explaining that “Navarone” was inspired by The Guns of Navarone. Navarone was born on March 1, 1987.
For Priscilla, motherhood this time was reportedly a very different experience from what she had known with Elvis.
Accounts describe her embracing the pregnancy, spending more time with her son, attending “mommy and me” activities, and avoiding work that would keep her away from him. Marco was also described as being actively involved in the birth.
And this is where the story becomes especially complicated.
Because while Priscilla was building a new family, Elvis Presley remained an enormous presence in the world outside her home.
One frequently discussed detail is Priscilla’s statement that she did not display photographs of Elvis in her home because she did not want to make Marco uncomfortable. Critics have questioned that explanation, especially because Priscilla continued to use the Presley name publicly and remained deeply connected to Elvis’s legacy.
But there is another side to the story.
Priscilla had spent years trying to create an identity separate from being “Elvis Presley’s wife.” Keeping Elvis photographs out of her personal home may therefore have been less about erasing Elvis and more about separating her private family life from a relationship that had ended many years earlier.
At the same time, Elvis’s presence remained impossible to completely escape.
Their daughter Lisa Marie was growing up.
And when Lisa became involved with musician Danny Keough, Priscilla reportedly had serious concerns. She believed, based on her own experiences, that young women should have time to experience life before marriage and children. Yet Lisa was already following a path that would soon make her a wife and a mother herself.
In October 1988, Lisa Marie married Danny Keough while pregnant with their first child, Danielle Riley Keough.
The ceremony was private, with Scientology playing a role in the couple’s wedding and honeymoon arrangements. The secrecy surrounding Lisa’s marriage reflected the extraordinary level of media attention surrounding the Presley family. Even while she was preparing to marry, reports about her romantic life could be wildly different from what was actually happening.
Priscilla reportedly also wanted Lisa to have financial protection. Because Lisa was Elvis Presley’s sole heir, a prenuptial agreement was arranged before her marriage to Danny.
That detail reveals another important side of Priscilla’s role as a mother.
She was not simply trying to control Lisa’s personal choices. She was also thinking about the enormous financial and historical legacy that came with being Elvis Presley’s daughter.
Lisa Marie had inherited something few children could ever understand: not merely money, but the Presley name, Graceland, and a legacy watched by millions.
And perhaps that is the real story hidden underneath all these complicated family relationships.
After Elvis died, Priscilla had to construct a life that was simultaneously her own and permanently connected to him.
She found Marco.
She had Navarone.
Lisa Marie became a wife and mother.
And Elvis remained at the center of everything—even when his photographs were absent from the walls.
That may be the most fascinating contradiction of all.
You could remove a photograph.
You could change your daily life.
You could build another family.
But you could never completely remove Elvis Presley from Priscilla’s story—or from the story of the daughter they shared.
The Presley family legacy did not end with Elvis’s death in 1977.
In many ways, that was when its most complicated chapter began.
