While Priscilla Presley was just 14 years old when she started dating late singer Elvis Presley, she has always maintained that the beginnings of their relationship was nothing but ‘innocent’.
The pair met in the late 1950s at a party in Bad Nauheim, Germany, where Elvis was stationed while in the US Army.
Priscilla's stepfather was also in the Air Force, and had been transferred to the base there with his family.
Despite Elvis being 24 at the time, the two began dating – eventually marrying in 1967 and having daughter Lisa Marie the following year, before their divorce in 1973.
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In a 1985 interview with Barbara Walters, Priscilla was quizzed about how her parents allowed her to be with a superstar 10 years her junior when she was just a ‘baby’.
Priscilla explained: “It was not easy on my parents. First of all, it was just an innocent meeting. And, of course, I was excited and I was reluctant because I didn’t think they’d ever let me go. But it was just a one-time opportunity – that's all they thought it would be.
“I never expected him to ask me back. They never expected him to ask me back.”
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Barbara pointed out that Priscilla would go on to see Elvis ‘again and again’, asking why her parents allowed this when she would end up being exhausted for school the next day.
“You know, when you’re in love, it’s hard to fight,” Priscilla continued.
“And I was rebellious somewhat, meaning I didn’t want to go to school – or I said I wouldn’t go to school.”
Priscilla said she thought Elvis would be out of her life after six months, pleading for her parents not to ‘ruin’ things.
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“He came to the house and was charming and wonderful,” she added.
“And my family had a lot of faith in him.”
As for what he was like then as a person, Priscilla recalled: “He was insecure. You could talk to him as a person. You knew who he was, you knew his fears. He was so vulnerable.
“He was gentle, he was fun, he was a person you could really deal with.”
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When asked if she was ‘mad’ about the star, she replied: “Our relationship was very different. It was a very protective relationship from the very beginning. I don’t know what it was about him, but he kind of took me under his arm and nourished me, in many ways.”
Barbara then quoted a passage from Priscilla’s book, in which she explained they would go into Elvis’ bedroom and he would give her ‘long, deep passionate kisses’ and ‘passionate caresses’ during this courting period.
However, Priscilla has always maintained that they never went any further at that time.
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She said: “There was an agreement he made with himself that the woman he decided to take for his wife, he was going to keep her that way [a virgin] until he married her.”
Jess Hardiman