Lisa Marie Presley was just nine when her father died at 42 in 1977.
During her first decade, she spent many happy months at Graceland, which became a holiday treat for her when Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley divorced in 1973.
Just as is the case on the tours today, the mansion’s upstairs was off-limits during The King’s lifetime as it was his private sanctuary.
You can even see the one-way mirrors in the security wall on the first-floor landing from the bottom of the main staircase to this day.
The main rooms in the secretive space were Elvis’ bedroom, bathroom and office, plus Lisa Marie’s childhood bedroom – rooms that have been preserved “exactly the same” as the star left them in 1977 as a sort of shrine in his honour.
In an unearthed interview, Lisa Marie once shared how Graceland’s upstairs, where she would sit and watch TV in her bedroom with Elvis, was a place of real solace for her.
Speaking previously with Lorraine, the King’s only child said: “Absolutely! It’s the one place I feel safest ever. I keep the key to upstairs with me. It’s just his room and my room, [it was Elvis’] sort of sanctuary. If I take the key…and just shut that door…I feel the safest and the calmest that I could possibly feel.”
Asked how religious her father was, she said: “Very much so…He always had books stacked up high next to his bed and they were all religious. If you go up to his bedroom, there’s a little office connected. And there’s just nothing but books of every religion…a million bibles. He was constantly searching and he was very connected to gospel.” She then went on to describe The King’s off-limits bedroom.
