Riley Keough Says She Was “Never Told Anything” About Michael Jackson Allegations During His Marriage to Mom Lisa Marie Presley

Riley Keough Says She Was “Never Told Anything” About Michael Jackson Allegations During His Marriage to Mom Lisa Marie Presley

Riley Keough is looking back on when her mom Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson.

While appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast on Wednesday, the actress was asked how her life might’ve changed as when Presley wed Jackson given his immense fame. Presley married Jackson from 1994 to 1996, following her separation from Keough’s dad Danny Keough. Presley and Danny Keough shared Riley and late son Benjamin, who died by suicide in 2020.

“Our life wasn’t crazier because that was already there. That already existed, like the press and the crazy, the paparazzi, but … I think when she saw Michael’s life, there were things that he had that she didn’t have,” Keough told host Alex Cooper.

“She didn’t have a plane at the time or things like that, and so she then was like, ‘Oh, I should have a plane and I should have this and that,’ and so our life in that way kind of got bigger because before that, she was with my dad and their life was very simple. Not with the press and the craziness, but in terms of at home. She didn’t have 10 million assistants and she didn’t need all of that and I think that changed.”

As for the most “extravagant” thing Jackson did for Keough and her late brother, Keough recalls Jackson having things closed down for them for privacy.

“There was a lot of closing down things for us. Well, it was kind of like the only way that our family could do things if we wanted to go to a toy store or like something like that, or ride rides. I don’t know if it was necessarily done for us or if just for our family situation where we had to shut the toy stores and stuff, but there was one memorable time in London where we were in the toy store, so it was just my brother and I in the whole toy store, and we were just going floor to floor to floor and filling up our thing. That was the first thing that comes to mind, but I don’t know if it was for us or just the way that our life was.”

Prior to Presley marrying Jackson, the King of Pop was facing allegations of abuse and that he assaulted children. But Keough says that she wasn’t aware of anything at the time.

“I was never told anything. It’s actually not something I ever asked as an adult,” she said. “I think it just was what it was. I don’t know, it just never came to mind, I guess.”

Despite being accused of sexually abusing minors during the late 1990s and early 2000s, the singer was never convicted on any charges. Jackson died in 2009 at age 50.

Despite not knowing anything, Keough said she “would imagine that my dad was really heartbroken and reading the news.” She said, “I would imagine he said all kinds of things to my mom that we didn’t know about.”

“The way my parents parented was very much like, ‘We don’t fight around the kids. We don’t ever say anything around them.’ We didn’t know anything. We didn’t know about any allegations. We didn’t know. We had no awareness of that.”

When reflecting further on Presley and Jackson’s relationship Keough said, “The one thing I know is that they were in love and that their love for one another was genuine because I was there and I remember. Everything else, I don’t know ’cause I wasn’t there for.”

In An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley, Keough also said of Jackson and his relationship with her mom, “I can only speak to my experience with Michael and my experience was that he was only kind and loving to me and my family, and I saw them in a very seemingly happy, loving relationship.”

Presley died on Jan. 12, 2023, from cardiac arrest at the age of 54. Prior to her death, Presley had been working on a memoir. Keough finished the posthumous memoir by listening to hours of tapes her mother had recorded for the book. From Here to the Great Unknown is available now.