Lisa Marie Presley, famous from the second she was born as the only child to Elvis and Priscilla Presley, died Thursday night after being rushed to the hospital earlier in the day following a cardiac arrest. She was 54.

“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” her mother confirmed in a statement. “She was the most passionate, strong, and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers.”

Presley was last seen publicly alongside her mother two days ago at the Golden Globes award ceremony, where she appeared on the red carpet with Austin Butler, the star of Baz Luhrmann’s biopic, Elvis, which was nominated for Best Picture - Drama. Butler, who won best actor, thanked “the Presley family” for “opening your hearts, your memories, your home to me. Lisa Marie, Priscilla, I’ll love you forever.”

Presley had been mostly absent from social media since her eldest son, Benjamin Keough, committed suicide in 2020. He was the first person to be buried at the Presley estate, Graceland, since 1980. In May 2022, she posted praise on Instagram of Luhrmann’s film and Butler’s performance: “Austin Butler channeled and embodied my father’s heart and soul beautifully. In my humble opinion, his performance is unprecedented and FINALLY done accurately and respectfully. (If he doesn’t get an Oscar for this, I will eat my own foot, haha.)”

Presley was born to the breed. A singer-songwriter, she released three albums: To Whom It May Concern (2003), Now What (2005), and Storm & Grace (2012). She also released duets with her father using his pre-recorded tracks. Unlike Elvis, she did not pursue a film career. “I was always intrigued that she was making records,” T Bone Burnett, who worked with Presley on Storm & Grace, said in a joint interview at the time. “I thought it was a gutsy thing to do—being in the family business is complicated.”

“I had the celebrity before the music,” Presley said in 2013. “I always have to struggle to conquer—that’s one element, and I get it—that’s one element, and that’s where the music is. This is what you read, and I get it, that other persona. But that’s not what this music’s about, that’s not what I do it for.”

Presley was born February 1, 1968. Her father doted on her. According to Priscilla, he once flew her to Idaho because she had never seen snow. Her father christened his 1958 Convair 880 private jet after her, calling it “The Lisa Marie.” She was four years old when her parents divorced and nine when Elvis died. She eventually became the sole heir to her father’s $100-million estate when her grandparents passed in 1979 and 1980.

She was married four times, most famously to singer Michael Jackson. Their marriage lasted from 1994 to 1996. The daughter of The King of Rock became friends with the King of Pop in the 1970s. In 1993, he sought her support after he was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy. Jackson later settled with the boy’s family for $23 million. Just 20 days after she finalized her divorce from Keough, she and Jackson were wed.

The high point of the tabloid-ready coupling was a surprise joint appearance to introduce the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards. “Nobody thought this would last,” Jackson joked before kissing her passionately, a stunt Lisa Marie tried to talk him out of.

In a 2010 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Presley reflected on what Jackson and her father had in common. “The one thing that correlates with Michael and with my father on this subject is that they had the luxury of creating whatever reality around them they wanted to create.” 

In 2002, Presley married Elvis enthusiast Nicolas Cage. The two met at a party in 2001. “I was thunderstruck,” Cage told Barbara Walters in 2003. There was a “logic” to their marriage, he said, as both came from famous families (he is a Coppola). The marriage lasted less than four months, but the divorce wasn’t finalized until 2004. “I miss her every day,” he said. He denied rumors he married her to be the father of Elvis’s grandchild.

Like her father, Lisa Marie struggled with substance abuse. She told Playboy magazine in 2003, “In every school, the kids would automatically hate me and think I was stuck up. But I wasn’t. I’d make friends with the outcasts. You name it, I would get in trouble for it. I was in this destructing mode: Anything my mom didn’t want me to do. Smoking, drinking, drugs, boys, whatever I could get my hands on. I went through a drug phase for like three years.” 

She entered a rehab program in 2016 to tackle her addiction to opioids and painkillers, which she had been given following the birth of her twin daughters, Harper and Finley, whom she had with fourth husband Michael Lockwood. (The couple divorced in 2021.)

In 2022, Presley wrote an essay for People magazine to acknowledge National Grief Awareness Day, in which she addressed her struggle to deal with her son’s suicide. “Death is a part of life,” she wrote. “And so is grieving. There is so much to learn and understand on the subject, but here’s what I know so far: One is that grief does not stop or go away…a year or years after the loss. Grief is something you will have to carry with you. You do not get over it, you do not move on, period.” 

According to People, Presley was a dedicated philanthropist as the creator of the non-profit Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation. She also partnered with Winfrey’s Angel Network to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina.  

Reflecting on her tumultuous life, Presley told Today, “I’m not perfect, my father wasn’t perfect. No one’s perfect. It’s what you do with it after you learn, and then you try to help others with it.”