‘It Was Too Painful To Be Sober’: Lisa Marie Presley’s Memoir Reveals Serious Opioid Addiction

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Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir has revealed how serious the star’s opioid addiction was during the height of her addiction, with a quote about how it was “too painful to be sober.”

In the new memoir “From Here to the Great Unknown” — written by Lisa Marie and completed by her daughter actress Riley Keough — the late star opened up about becoming addicted to the painkillers after giving birth to her twins in 2008, Finley and Harper, with ex-husband Michael, People magazine reported. Presley died in January 2023 at the age of 54 from complications from prior bariatric surgery.

“It escalated to 80 pills a day,” Lisa Marie wrote. “It took more and more to get high, and I honestly don’t know when your body decides it can’t deal with it anymore. But it does decide at some point.”

The late star said her opioid use was “recreational” for a few years, until “it wasn’t.”

“It was an absolute matter of addiction, withdrawal in the big leagues. I just wanted to check out. It was too painful to be sober.”

Keough wrote that her mom first became addicted to the narcotics while dealing with the pain of her C-section from having the twins. Her addiction progressed from using the opioids to help her “sleep,” but she began to feel “shame” about becoming an addict with two young kids.

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The 35-year-old actress wrote that, even when her mom was court-ordered to go to a rehab center, she “didn’t feel” her mom “was ready to be sober.” She also wrote that after her mom’s rehab stint, Lisa Marie did stop using opioids, but was still getting high on the “post-rehab cocktail.”

Keough previously opened up about how “incredibly painful” it was making her late mother’s final wish a reality, by completing Presley’s memoir.

“Because my mother was Elvis Presley’s daughter, she was constantly talked about, argued over and dissected,” Keough explained.

“What she wanted to do in her memoir, and what I hope I’ve done in finishing it for her, is to go beneath the magazine headline idea of her and reveal the core of who she was,” she added. “To turn her into a three-dimensional human being: the best mother, a wild child, a fierce friend, an underrated artist, frank, funny, traumatized, joyous, grieving, everything that she was throughout her remarkable life.”

“I want to give voice to my mother in a way that eluded her while she was alive,” Riley continued. “I hope that in an extraordinary circumstance, people relate to a very human experience of love, heartbreak, loss, addiction and family. [My mom] wanted to write a book in the hopes that someone could read her story and relate to her, to know that they’re not alone in the world. Her hope with this book was just human connection. So that’s mine.”

Related: ‘Incredibly Painful’: Lisa Marie Presley’s Daughter Talks Finishing Mom’s Memoir



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