Lisa Marie Presley Took Up to '80 Pills a Day' At Height of Opioid Addiction: 'I Just Wanted to Check Out'

Late singer Lisa Marie Presley had an intense battle with opioid addiction that nearly became fatal years before her death at 54 years old in 2023.

In her posthumous memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, which was published on Tuesday (Oct. 8), Presley detailed that the substance abuse began following the 2008 birth of her twin daughters, Finley and Harper Lockwood.

While Presley, who was the daughter of rock 'n' roll icon Elvis Presley, had her twins with ex-husband, Michael Lockwood, she also shared two older children, Benjamin and actress Riley Keough (who co-authored From Here), with her first husband, Danny Keough. Although she didn't share any children with him, Michael Jackson was Presley's second husband, and the two were married from 1994 to 1996. She was also married to actor Nicholas Cage from 2002 to 2004.

"It escalated to 80 pills a day," Lisa Marie wrote about her opioid dependence, per People. "It took more and more to get high, and I honestly don't know when your body decides it can't deal with it anymore. But it does decide at some point."

While Presley's opioid usage was "recreational" for a few years, what followed was a period where "it wasn't."

"It was an absolute matter of addiction, withdrawal in the big leagues," she continued. "I just wanted to check out. It was too painful to be sober."

From Keough's point of view, she witnessed that her mother began taking opioids to subside the pain from her c-section, and "then she progressed to taking them to sleep," whilst feeling "shame" about the addiction as a third-time mother.

The Zola actress was taken aback by her mother's decision to take opioids heavily, as she originally stopped taking drugs as a teenager, even forgoing Advil and Tylenol as an adult. During a period of hospitalization, Presley was sent to rehab by court orders before having bariatric surgery, which would ultimately lead to her death. But following her time in rehab, while Presley gave up opioids, she relied "on the post-rehab cocktail." She would return to the hospital after a seizure.

"She had been very chastened by the seizure," Keough wrote.

Last January, first responders found Presley unconscious in her Calabasas home after cardiac arrest, days before a medical examiner's office ruled that she died of natural causes and a "small bowel obstruction."

Other revelations from Presley's book have surfaced like Jackson telling her he was "still a virgin" at 35 years old.