Highlights
- Riley Keough had a strong bond with her former stepfather, Michael Jackson, and admired his ability to make people happy.
- Keough spent more time at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch than at her grandfather's Graceland, and she considered it a real home.
- Keough does not currently have any contact with her former stepfather, Nicolas Cage, but respects him as a great actor.
Before Lisa Marie Presley tragically passed away due to a bowel obstruction, she loved her children deeply. While it seems clear that Riley Keough is proud to be Lisa Marie Presley's daughter, most people don't know what she thinks of the music legends that she's been related to.
From the moment that Riley Keough was born, she was related to one of the biggest music legends in history, Elvis Presley. However, Keough never got to meet her famous grandfather. On the other hand, Keough grew to have a strong opinion of her former stepfather, Michael Jackson.
Did Riley Keough Like Her Former Stepfather, Michael Jackson?
During the '90s, several stories captivated the public's imagination for a variety of reasons. A perfect example of that is the media and many people were captivated by every new revelation related to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
Similar to the world's fascination with Clinton and Lewinsky, many people couldn't look away from Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley. The reason for that is many people found it very hard to believe that Presley and Jackson truly were in a relationship.
In 1994, many people were shocked when it was announced that Jackson and Presley had gotten married. Following that, the couple made some public appearances that many observers felt were so awkward that they still had to know more.
At the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards, Jackson and Presley made their first public appearance, and they locked lips onstage.
Following that, the former couple were interviewed in tandem by Diane Sawyer, and they were asked intrusive questions including if they were intimate.
After their appearance at the awards show and that interview, Jackson and Presley's marriage started to feel like a sideshow of sorts. What many of the people who were gossiping about their marriage forgot, however, is real people with real emotions were involved.
In the past, Presley defended her relationship with Jackson from conjecture it was a publicity stunt to rehab his reputation. “I am very much in love with Michael. I dedicate my life to being his wife.” After the couple's marriage dissolved, there were reports that his addiction to medication ruined their relationship.
While Presley spoke about her marriage to Jackson at the time, some people seemed to forget that other people were invested in the former couple. For example, Presley's two eldest children including Riley Keough had Michael Jackson as a stepfather at the time.
In 2023, Vanity Fair published a profile about the actor, director, and screenwriter Riley Keough. Given all the celebrities that Keough has been related to at one time or another, it makes sense that her personal life came up when she was interviewed for that piece.
When Keough was a child, she rubbed elbows with several celebrities who knew her mom. During her Vanity Fair interview, Keough reflected on how unusual her mom's several marriages made her childhood.
“My whole childhood was probably very extreme. 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."
Keough then went on to talk about the relationship she had with the King of Pop when he was her stepfather. While some people have always been convinced that nothing about Jackson and Presley's relationship was real, it seems unlikely that is true.
Based on what Keough told Vanity Fair, at the very least Jackson developed a relationship with Presley's only daughter at the time. Keough told Vanity Fair that she adored Jackson and she compared him to her grandfather in a really positive way.
"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.”
From there, Vanity Fair's interviewer asked Keough about the differences between growing up in Graceland and Jackson's Neverland Ranch. After comparing how much time she spent living in the two famous homes, Keough admitted she liked Jackson's Neverland Ranch more.
Since Jackson's home had everything from a zoo to rides for kids to ride on, some may assume that is why Keough liked it better. However, according to what Keough told Vanity Fair, there was a lot more wholesome reason why she preferred Neverland Ranch.
“Which one did I like better? I spent more time at Neverland than Graceland, to be honest. That was a real home, whereas Graceland was a museum in my lifetime.”
Was Riley Keough Close With Her Other Famous Stepfather, Nicolas Cage?
After Lisa Marie Presley's marriage to Michael Jackson came to an end in 1996, she wouldn't rush to walk down the aisle again. However, by 2001, Presley seemed to believe that she'd found love with a new celebrity.
After they dated for roughly five months, Nicolas Cage proposed to Presley in 2001. The following year in August 2002, Presley and Cage were married. In November 2002, the news broke that the marriage was over as Cage suddenly filed for divorce. Ultimately, the couple finalized their divorce in 2004 which means that process took a lot longer than their marriage.
Ultimately, the former couple reportedly remained friendly until her tragic passing and Cage publicly mourned her death. During a pair of interviews, Presley reflected on her marriage to and divorce from Cage.
In the immediate aftermath of the divorce in 2002, Presley gave People a simple statement. “I’m sad about this, but we shouldn’t have been married in the first place.” The following year in 2003, Presley spoke to ABC News about what bothered her about the divorce and who was to blame.
"The most upsetting thing," Presley said, "was when he called to say he was sorry, wish he hadn't done it, things like that. You can't have a temper tantrum and then call me four days later and expect, you know, everything to be fine again … so, it was like that … We were both like two 12-year-olds in a sandbox, basically."
During Riley Keough's aforementioned Vanity Fair interview, she was asked about her current relationship with her former stepfather. According to Keough, she has no contact with Cage these days, but she would be open to working with him at some point. "He’s a great actor. I’ve had some wild stepfathers. Famous and not famous.”
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