After her son Benjamin passed away, Lisa Marie Presley kept his body on dry ice for two months for a very heartbreaking reason. Just under four years had gone since the terrible suicide death of her son Benjamin Keough, when Lisa Marie, 54, passed away in January 2023.
Lisa Marie, the sole child of Elvis Presley, departed from her twin children, Harper and Finley Lockwood, who are 16 years old, and her daughter Riley Keough, who is a star of Daisy Jones & The Six. Riley finished a book she had written, From Here to the Great Unknown, and it was published on October 8 following her death.
In her memoir, Lisa Marie discussed Benjamin’s sudden passing in 2020 and disclosed that she had held his body for two months before burying him in a casita bedroom. As she had explained to her father, Elvis Presley, “there is no law in California that requires someone to be buried immediately,” and she felt it was important to give Benjamin the time she needed to say goodbye.
Lisa Marie was just nine years old when Elvis passed away, so having his body at home and being able to visit and talk with him had been consoling. Throughout that time, she kept Benjamin’s remains at 55 degrees while debating whether to bury him in Graceland or Hawaii.
She acknowledged in the biography, “I became so accustomed to him being there, taking care of him… I was grateful that I could continue to raise him until I was ready to say goodbye, even if it was only for a short while longer.
Barry Manilow explains why he waited decades to come out as gay
During a guest appearance on HBO’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, the 80-year-old Copacabana singer said he didn’t think it was important to announce his sexuality during the earlier decades of his career.
Manilow came out in 2017, almost three years after he married his husband and manager Garry Kief in a private ceremony. The couple have been together for 45 years now, though they’ve kept much of their relationship away from the public eye.
When he came out to People magazine in 2017, Manilow — whose real name is Barry Pincus — worried he’d be “disappointing” some of his fans by revealing his sexuality. Instead, Manilow, who was 73 at the time, said the reaction from his fanbase was “beautiful.”
Despite his current feelings of nonchalance about his own coming out, Manilow said announcing his sexuality as his career was booming would have been a bad idea.
“Now being gay is no big deal,” he explained. “Back in the ’70s it would have killed a career.”
Regardless, the usually very private Manilow said he thinks “everybody knew that Garry and I were a couple all those years.”
“Really, Garry and I’ve been together for so long,” he said. “It just never dawned on me that we’re going to come out. But when we got married, it was a big deal, so we did.”
Manilow credited Kief for saving his life. He said he is thankful he had Kief to support him as his music career was taking off, despite keeping their relationship under wraps.
“As my career exploded, it was just crazy. And, you know, going back to an empty hotel room, you can get into a lot of trouble if you’re alone night after night after night,” Manilow explained. “But I met Garry right around when it was exploding. And I didn’t have to go back to those empty hotel rooms. I had somebody to cry with or to celebrate with.”
Manilow said he did not wish an isolated hotel room for any young people.
“It was pretty lonely until I met Garry. And then it was fun,” he smiled.
Kief is not Manilow’s first spouse. In 1964, Manilow married his high school sweetheart, Susan Deixler. They were married for one year.
Manilow told CNN’s Wallace he “really did love” Deixler, but added “the gay thing was pretty, pretty strong. I couldn’t deny it.”
The singer said he knew he was gay before marrying Deixler, but their marriage ended because Manilow couldn’t be the committed husband his then-wife needed. He revealed that his sexuality was not the reason his marriage failed.
“We had a very nice marriage, it was great, but I was away every night making music, as a young musician would be,” Manilow described. “It wasn’t good for me, and it wasn’t good for her.”
“I couldn’t be the proper husband,” he continued. “I was out making music every night, sowing my wild oats. I wasn’t ready to settle down.”
Brooklyn-born Manilow skyrocketed to international fame in 1974 after his release of the ever-popular pop-rock ballad Mandy. He became one of the biggest-selling musicians of all time. Prior to his success as a singer-songwriter, Manilow was behind a number of famous commercial jingles for brands like State Farm and Band-Aid — a gig that he has said helped him create catchy hooks for his own hit songs.
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