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Following last year’s glossily positive Elvis biopic from Baz Luhrman, new film Priscilla casts a very different light on The King and his teenage queen.
Based on Priscilla’s own book, Elvis and Me, it shows much more of the reality between a worldwide star and the innocent 14-year-old who would, eventually, become his bride.
Priscilla has also spoken publicly about what went on between them when the star was adamant she remain a virgin before marriage – and then, just months later, pulled away sexually as soon she became pregnant and a mother.
Elvis met Priscila Beaulieu in September 1959 when he was stationed with the 3rd Armored Division of the US Army in Friedberg, Germany, during his military service. He was 24 and she was the schoolgirl step-daughter of a USAF officer stationed there.
In a televised interview, Priscilla told Barbara Walters: “It was not easy on my parents… When you’re in love, it’s hard to fight. I was rebellious. (I told them) ‘I don’t want to go to school. He’ll be out of my life after six months. Don’t ruin my life.’ He came to my house and was charming and wonderful…
In her book she says: “Elvis would take me into his bedroom and then we would kiss long, deep, passionate kisses and his caresses would leave me weak with desire.”
Six months later, Elvis returned to the US and they did not see each other until he finally persuaded her parents to allow her to visit in Summer 1962, and finally move over in March 1963, just before her 18th birthday in May.
Priscilla said: “In my parents’ defence, they were going through it, they were having a hard time with it but I was in love. They were caught between, ‘Well, if we don’t let her go she’ll sneak out and catch a plane and go.’ My mother would cry and go, ‘I didn’t know what to do.’”
Priscilla was supposed to be staying separately with Elvis’ grandmother Minnie Mae, but she effectively moved into The King’s bedroom at Graceland and never left. She maintains that the relationship was not fully sexually consummated until their wedding day, four years later, even though it was well-known that the star had numerous sexual affairs before, during and after their decade together.
Priscilla 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. “
However, the couple still found many other ways to find pleasure in bed.
In her 1985 book Elvis And Me, Priscilla describes how they took dozens of polaroids acting out their fantasies together and with others as she “learned how to turn him on sexually.”
A source described how: “At times, Elvis introduced another girl into the sex scene in his bedroom. In this play, Elvis had Priscilla and the girl pretend to make love while he watched, filmed, and sometimes joined in.”
Priscilla added: “He worked his art of foreplay without penetration. In lovemaking, as in entertaining, Elvis’ outstanding talent was oral… Under no circumstances were his ideas or playfulness ever perverted.”
Under pressure from Elvis’ manager Colonel Parker, the pair finally tied the knot on May 1, 1967. Priscilla immediately fell pregnant, something she had been determined to postpone, already knowing what would ensue.
Elvis had inherited many traditional ideas from his mother Gladys, and insisted on a virginal bride, but also struggled to see a woman sexually once she was a mother.
Within months, during the pregnancy, the relationship and intimacy suffered and never recovered. Lisa Marie was born on February 1, 1968 and Elvis resumed his pursuit of co-stars and beautiful young women, often for more foreplay and role games.
Already living separate lives, Priscilla left Elvis in February 1972 and their divorce was finalised in October the following year.