Riley Keough had ‘extreme childhood’ with Michael Jackson as her stepfather, ‘You just remember the love
Riley Keough has opened up about her ‘very extreme childhood’ and bonding with step-dad Michael Jackson.
As the granddaughter of music icon Elvis Presley, the Daisy Jones and the Six actress grew up as part of Hollywood royalty, under the wing of her parents, Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough. Speaking in a candid new interview, the 34-year-old discussed growing up in the limelight, and what she remembers from her late mother’s brief marriage to the King of Pop. In May, 1994, the former couple tied the knot following a whirlwind relationship – just days after Lisa’s divorce from Danny was finalized.
‘My whole childhood was probably very extreme,’ Riley told Vanity Fair. ‘In hindsight, I can see how crazy these things would be to somebody from the outside. But when you’re living in them, it’s just your life and your family.
‘You just remember the love, and I had real love for Michael.
‘I think he really got a kick out of being able to make people happy, in the most epic way possible, which I think he and my grandfather had in common.’
Sharing whether she liked Neverland or Graceland better, the actress added: ‘I spent more time at Neverland than Graceland, to be honest. That was a real home, whereas Graceland was a museum in my lifetime.’
Lisa Marie’s relationship with Michael wasn’t to last, and she filed to legally end their marriage in January, 1996, citing irreconcilable differences.
She moved on from the musician John Oszajca before walking back down the aisle with Nicolas Cage in 2002, with their romance also ending in divorce shortly after.
Riley explained that she hadn’t kept in touch with the Hollywood favorite, but would be keen to share the screen with him in a future project.
‘He’s a great actor,’ she added. ‘I’ve had some wild stepfathers. Famous and not famous.’
She became a mom herself for the first time last August, welcoming daughter Tupelo with husband Ben Smith-Peterson via a surrogate.
The unique moniker is in honor of Elvis, and was the name that the Jailhouse Rock star was born in, in Mississippi.
The couple chose to give Tupelo the middle name of Storm, after Riley’s brother Benjamin Storm Keough, who died at the age of 27 in 2020.
