Lisa Marie Presley’s ex-husband fears she may relapse on drugs and alcohol following her son Benjamin Keough’s tragic suicide, and is asking the court to strip her of primary custody of their 11-year-old twin daughters.
Michael Lockwood filed court documents on Thursday demanding Presley, the daughter of the late Elvis Presley, be released from primary custody of their kids claiming ‘new and significant concern’ that she may potentially relapse and fears about guns inside the home.
Presley previously battled an opioid and painkiller addiction but has been allegedly three years sober, according to the filing.
Presley’s son Benjamin Keough, 27, tragically died on July 12. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a bathroom at their $1.8million Calabasas home, leaving Presley ‘heartbroken’.
Lockwood, 59, and Presley, 52, split in 2016 after 10 years of marriage and share 11-year-old twin daughters Harper and Finley together.
They are currently embroiled in a tense divorce and custody battle with a trial date set for August 3.
Lisa Marie Presley’s ex-husband fears she may relapse on drugs and alcohol following her son Benjamin Keough’s tragic suicide, and is asking the court to strip her of primary custody of their 11-year-old twin daughters. Lisa Marie pictured with son Benjamin in London in January 2012
Michael Lockwood, 59, filed court documents on Thursday demanding he be given primary custody of his kids with Lisa Marie Presley, 52. They were married for 10 years and split in 2016 and share 11-year-old twin daughters Harper and Finley. Pictured together in May 2015
‘Lisa Marie Presley’s son shot and killed himself in her home (Although she was not there at the time.) With all due sympathy and respect, this creates a new and unaddressed twofold problem: the safety of the children and the greater likelihood of [Presley] to relapse into drug and alcohol dependency,’ Lockwood’s filing, obtained by The Blast, states.
Lockwood further expressed concern about guns inside Presley’s home.
‘The children told (him) that (LMP) walked around the house with a gun in her hand in 2017. There was at least one gun on the premises of her home at the time of her son’s suicide and it is unclear where the gun was kept or whether Finley and/or Harper might have access to this gun or others,’ the filing said.
‘Thus, there is a significantly higher risk to the safety of the children which would ordinarily justify 100% physical custody to (me) at this time in such circumstances,’ he added.
Lockwood said he’s worried the children will be exposed to conversations about suicide.
‘There is a greater possibility that the children might think about suicide or attempt it, in light of their half brother’s suicide,’ the filing states.
Presley pictured with her four children daughter Danielle Riley Keough, son Benjamin and twins Harper and Finley
DailyMail.com has learned that Benjamin’s body was discovered by deputies slumped on the toilet in the family’s Calabasas, California, home
Lisa Marie and Benjamin were known for being extremely close. They are pictured together in an old social media snap
‘LMP) has sobriety issues, has a problem with substance and alcohol abuse, kept at least one firearm in the house where her son had access and used it to kill himself, carried a handgun in front of the children during 2017 at home, and thus LMP is a far greater risk to the children’s safety than (me),’ the filing stated.
‘In light of such a tragic and devastating event, it would not be surprising for (LMP) to relapse into drug or alcohol use despite her alleged three years sober. The death of a child is among life’s most traumatic events,’ Lockwood added.
In the filing he said Presley has been in rehabilitation facilities for drug and alcohol issues ‘at least five times and attended outpatient rehabilitation until 2018’.
‘(LMP) has admitted that as recently as Oct. 2016 she took 20 to 80 Oxycodone tablets per day, then used cocaine in order to stop using Oxycodone,’ he said in the filing.
Lockwood said he does not know if Presley is sober at this time and said media photographs suggest she has smoked marijuana and drunk beer since her last rehabilitation treatment.
He asked the court to implement random drug tests for Presley and said he’d be willing to take them himself as well.
The Presley family of (left to right) Riley Keough, Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley and Benjamin Keough during the 75th birthday celebration for Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee January 8, 2010
Presley has been married four times and had four children.
She had married singer Danny Keough in 1988 and they shared Danielle Riley Keough and Benjamin. The couple divorced in 1994.
She married Michael Jackson in 1994 but they divorced two years later. She married actor Nicolas Cage in 2002 but they divorced two years following. She wed Michael Lockwood in 2006 and they separated in 2016, and they share the twins.
After news of the death emerged, bereaved Lisa Marie’s representative told DailyMail.com: ‘She is completely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated but trying to stay strong for her 11-year-old twins and her oldest daughter Riley.’
‘She adored that boy. He was the love of her life,’ the rep added.
Following his death she’s been holed up at Beverly Hills hotel for days and was reportedly avoiding returning to her family’s mansion.
Presley opened up about her addiction to painkillers and opioids last year in the foreward for the book The United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberation a Nation in Pain by Harry Nelson.
In that foreward she wrote she’s ‘grateful to be alive today’.
Lisa Marie Presley with Benjamin’s father, Danny Keough, at a California theater in 1991 (left) and Benjamin pictured with his mother in 2010 (right)
‘I was recovering after the [2008] birth of my daughters, [Harper] Vivienne and Finley, when a doctor prescribed me opioids for pain. It only took a short-term prescription of opioids in the hospital for me to feel the need to keep taking them” due to their dangerous addictive properties,’ she wrote.
She added in the book: ‘You may read this and wonder how, after losing people close to me, I also fell prey to opioids’. Her father Elvis Presley and ex-husband Michael Jackson died from complications from drug use.
‘[I’m] grateful to be alive today… and to have four beautiful children who have given me a sense of purpose that has carried me through dark times,’ she added
Benjamin was Presley’s only son, and she described him as ‘the love of her life’.
On Mother’s Day 2009, the pair reportedly got matching tattoos of a Celtic eternity knot to symbolize their eternal love for one another.
In 2012, Lisa Marie penned a song about Benjamin, titled Storm And Grace.
Lyrics include the lines: ‘You are the most beautiful man that I’ve ever known, Too much to offer and too much held close to the bone.
‘You have the most beautiful heart that I’ve ever known, It kills me you can’t ever show it and a shell has been grown’.
In an old interview, Lisa Marie also gushed over Benjamin’s striking resemblance to her famous father.
‘Ben does look so much like Elvis. He was at the Opry and was the quiet storm behind the stage. Everybody turned around and looked when he was over there. Everybody was grabbing him for a photo because it is just uncanny,’ she stated.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please contact the SAMHSA substance abuse helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.