My Whoopitydoo Life

By Gill Martin in New Orleans

She could have turned out a poor little rich bitch, messed up on drugs, a hollow Hollywood brat, trailing a string of broken dreams and affairs.

Lisa Marie Presley, green eyes flashing fire, admits: "being Elvis Presley’s daughter people treated me different and allowed me to be a jerk. They allowed me to get away with a lot more because of who I was. It messed up my values. If I wasn’t careful and didn’t have some basic integrity, I could be a real - excuse the language – asshole right now." Says Miss Presley, shooting straight from her slim, trouser suited hips. That the only child of the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roller ended up as serene, sane, and sensible as she is today at 24 is a credit both to her and her mother Priscilla Presley.

Now 15 years on from her father’s death when she was just nine, Lisa has carved out a life for herself as a concerned, caring mother, a loving wife far removed from tinsletown trashiness and Hollywood hype. "I could very easily have ended up a horrid, spoilt, rich kid. It’s down to me and my mother that I didn’t," she tells me as she relaxes in a New Orleans hotel suite.

Her musician, turned writer, husband Danny Keough, 27, and their daughter Danielle, just three, are the last missing pieces to complete the jigsaw of her life. "If I didn’t have a husband and a child, I’d be a mess. If I didn’t have a family unit like that I probably would seek to destroy myself at some point. Life wouldn’t be important, Money and fame is not enough to keep one honestly happy."

She is patently blissfully happy with Danny, husband of four years, lover of six. He wears a silver and gold heart motif bracelet, a wedding anniversary present from Lisa.

And as for Danielle: "She is my life now, I live for her. Before her, life wasn’t as important to me. She has helped me understand life, and seeing it through her eyes gives me life."

Lisa is unmistakably a Presley; chiselled features, hooded eyes, dark, dark hair. "I looked like my mother when I was younger but grew up looking much more like my father."

She was a self confessed tomboy, throwing missiles at the fans who flocked to the Presley home of Graceland, terrorising neighbours in a golf-kart, rebelling at 14 for four turbulent years, dabbling in drugs, fending off a fortune-hunting boyfriend.

"My mother sent me to boarding school and kept me well grounded. She was very protective of me. I know I gave her grey hairs. She was very good at keeping me away from the odd values of Hollywood and that whole scene. I still live in Los Angeles, I think it’s hell on earth. Children grow up to fast. Their values and integrity are destroyed because so many people have odd values and tell you things they think you want to hear. I haven’t had a lot of blunt truth in my life. But now Danny gives me that. He’s never kept the truth from me."

Truth has been in short supply in stories surrounding Lisa. When she reads articles of her "rich and famous" life style she barely recognises herself.

The Sunday Mirror carried two articles about her that so distressed her and her husband that they decided to put the record straight in a rare face to face interview.

The Sunday Mirror because it was misled by American and other sources, published unfounded stories about Lisa and her husband which it has dealt with in an appropriate manner. It is delighted through this feature, following an agreement by C.Barry Ward, her U.S. attorney, and James Ware and Oscar Beuselinck in the U.K., to make it clear that, contrary to the articles published in October and November 1990, Lisa and her husband enjoy a full and happy family both as husband and wife and as parents, and that these stories were wholly untrue and without foundation.

Says Lisa "The big disadvantage of being Elvis Presley’s daughter is everything has been a whoopitydoo since I was born. Interest in me got bigger and bigger when I married and had a child. Now I want to have my own life and my own thing going."

Career plans – possibly acting or singing – are on the drawing board. The pressure of being the daughter of The King is enormous, intimidating. Whatever she does will invite comparison with the legend. And it can’t be easy being known as the man who married the girl who is the daughter of ……

Danny Keough copes well. He’s taken the place of Priscilla as Lisa’s protector, a towering 6ft 2in over her 5ft 3in. They’re very much a couple, with that comfortable habit of finishing each other’s sentences, exchanging amused looks as they read each other’s thoughts.

"We talk about everything and anything," says Danny son of a boarding school headmistress and a businessman. "We are both fighters, very independent, very strongwilled," says Lisa. " It can be great and incredible when we are together and everything is flowing in the right direction – and then it can turn into the opposite and it’s horrible. It blows up.

We are very similar which can cause a lot of fire, and also stability and fun at the same time. We have some good rows going." Despite the rows their love shines out. She stands on the tip-toe as he kisses her brow. He eases her tiredness by rubbing her back. They are happier still with darling daughter Danielle – and would love more children.

Marriage and fatherhood have changed Danny’s life from a musician on the road to a home – based doting dad. "Whoever I married I wouldn’t have continued being a road musician, never seeing your family eight months a year. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was Lisa or the girl next door. Having a child means you grow. It was the most amazing experience and my values altered. It made me put a magnifying glass on good qualities of life, an opportunity to milk the gold out of relationships." He married Lisa because "it was the natural thing to do – the next step in our relationship."

"And because I was pregnant. We were together almost two years before and planned to get married but that speeded up the process."

Lisa’s passion is children. She wants more despite gaining 45lb ( since an American newspaper’s unflattering picture of her, big, bloated and pushing a shopping trolley, she’s not entered a supermarket ) and a 25 hour labour with Danielle.

Now Lisa’s a toned trim size 10." I’d gained 45lb when I was pregnant for no reason except I ate what I wanted and had no idea about fat, protein, carbohydrates, I got incredibly out of shape after Danielle. It took a year and a half to lose. I breast–fed Danielle and had to lose weight so I learned about food. I’d eat five pieces of pizza and yell at my personal trainer because I wasn’t losing weight. She’d kick my behind and make me run as fast as I could. Now I work out four days a week. Fitness is an important, part of my life. I get an adrenaline high out of it."

Her current hobby is against a drug to quell hyperactive children.

"I had a close relative aged four on this and it was devastating to watch him. Psychiatrists can prescribe it irresponsibly to schoolchildren from aged four who are‘ out of control’ or ‘overly active’ when the causes can be wide range of things such as sugar intake, which causes hyperactivity and allergies, home environment etc. The drug is incredibly addictive, with side effects of insanity and depression. I’ve met people who’ve taken it when younger who’ve become really screwed up: heroin addicts, those who’ve tried to commit suicide."

She has strong ideas, too, on how to bring up her daughter, despite over- indulgence by granny Priscilla of chocolate ice cream. Lisa’s little girl is just two years younger than Danielle’s grandmother Priscilla Presley’s son Navarone by Brazilian film producer Marco Garibaldi.

Lisa knew she was carrying a girl at four months. "I had a scan to find out her sex so I wouldn’t get green and yellow at my baby shower. And I wanted to decorate the nursery!"

Next time it could be a boy. An Elvis grandson to carry on the presley dynasty. And a boy, you can bet your bottom dollar, who’ll proudly proclaim: " My mother is Lisa Marie Presley. "