Priscilla Presley says she only dated Elvis Presley in her mind as a teenager.
The actress, who was 14 when she met the 24-year-old singer, addressed the well-known age gap in her relationship with Elvis at a press conference for Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” biopic, explaining that Elvis was always “respectful.”
“It was very difficult for my parents to understand that Elvis would be so interested in me and I really do think because I was more of a listener,” Presley said.
“Elvis would pour his heart out to me, his fears, his hopes, the loss of his mother which he never ever got over, and I was the person who really really sat there to listen and to comfort him,” she said. “I was a little bit older in life than in numbers and that was the attraction. And you know, people think, ‘Oh, it was sex’…Not at all. I never had sex with him. He was very kind, very soft, very loving. But he also respected the fact that I was only 14 years old. We were more in mind and thought. And that was our relationship.”
“I never gave him up in any way,” she continued. “I never told anyone at school I was seeing him.”
Seven years after meeting, Priscilla married Elvis when she was 21 and he was 32.
Shifting her focus to their spilt, Priscilla said, “It wasn’t because I didn’t love him. He was the love of my life. It was the lifestyle that was so difficult for me, and I think any woman can relate to that. But it didn’t mar our relationship, we still remained very close. And of course, we had our daughter, and I made sure that he saw her all the time. It was like we never left each other.”
Watch the trailer for “Priscilla” below.
